The Door Was Opened Normally
by agrant33074
Summary: A pretty plotless story that basically revolves around Josh and Donna being together, and their getting Sam and Ainsley together. Now with part three of the journey to Wisconsin! Thanks to everyone who has been reading.
1. The Door Was Opened Normally

A NOTE:

Originally, I was not going to put a note on to my story. I was going to simply let it be as is. Then, I decided, as I was writing it, being the self conscious person that I am, that I needed to have some notes about it and my writing abilities. So, here goes:

You, the reader, will probably notice I have a lot of issues with tenses and pronouns and all that sort of stuff. I tried my best, but feel free to leave a review about my lack of grammatical skills. It will help.

Also, this is my first story EVER, though I did start to write another one for characters on "24" and my computer died. I would just like everyone to keep my lack of experience in mind. I am, by no means, a seasoned veteran.

Finally, no one should really feel as though they need to leave a review. If someone wants to, that's great, but I always leave horrible reviews for people and feel badly about it. I tend to just use ":)" which isn't really constructive criticism. For all those readers like me who feel guilty about their bad reviewing: don't worry about it here.

Thanks!

Oh, and P.S. --- sorry about the length of the note.

* * *

The door was opened normally. 

The card was swiped through, giving a green light, and the handle was pulled down and the door was pushed open. The threshold received two people, who, to the best of their ability, walked in as casually as possible. It wasn't until the door closed that things began to get interesting.

They were now enjoying complete privacy. After spending six hours on a plane with friendly faces, traveling cross-country, they were alone, at last, in the cozy confines of a Los Angeles Sheraton. One would be surprised to understand how thoroughly these two people had anticipated this simple room in a hotel.

It wasn't a salacious affair, nor was it a one night stand. It wasn't a married couple getting away for the weekend, nor was it two newlyweds, spending their wedding-night. It was two people in love, finally able to be alone.

The sharing of the hotel room was nothing to bat an eyelid over. They had always shared a room on one of those short trips to the west coast. There was no need to scrutinize their arraignment, as nothing had ever happened before on a journey out west. Today, however, was not one of the normal days. Things had changed quite dramatically over the six months they had last been to California, and the scene now taking place was gospel to that statement.

"Okay. Let's _try_ to maintain a level of professionalism," she said, interrupting the previous work her lips had been doing.

"Why bother? We have two hours until we have to be at the site."

"Yes, but people -- are going to be wanting to speak with you -- before hand, to strategize and -- what not. I have a feeling -- they'll be suspicious with you -- and me being up here for two hours." It was difficult to get a few words out before once again his lips were pressed upon hers.

"Let them wonder. For all they know we're playing Monopoly."

"You travel with a Monopoly set?"

"Okay. Cards," he said, finally breaking away for more than a few seconds. "We're playing a very in-depth game of cards."

"As much as I'd -- like to go along with that -- plan, I don't think -- it's going to -- work."

"Well, then I guess we'll have to make a new plan."

"Joshhh! Stop. As much as I'd like to continue this, you really need to go talk with Toby and Sam and C.J. about what the President is going to say."

"Alright, alright," Josh replied, getting up and finding his folder with his notes. "You know," he said, "you really should be less concerned with the affairs of our country right now and more concerned with the affairs of you and me. It's not every day that we can share a hotel room without getting a few questions sent our way."

"No, people always question me," she mumbled as she straightened out her skirt. "They don't seem to understand why it is that on a trip, everyone else gets their separate rooms, but you and I decide to share."

"I always say it's because we're trying to economize."

"I always say it's because you're helpless without me."

"Well, that too, I suppose, because when I am not in my own apartment, and work is combining itself in my living environment more so than it already does, I need aid from a beautiful woman," Josh said quickly as he walked over to give her a kiss on the cheek as the phone began to ring.

"I bet I know who's calling," she said as she reached over to get the phone, moving her hair out of the way and placing the receiver to her ear. "Hi Toby. Yes. Josh will be right down."

"Well, I guess I'm off."

"Yes."

She watched as Josh began to walk out and leave the room. "Good luck, and don't forget to show Toby the notes in your jacket pocket!" she shouted after him.

He smiled at the door, laughing to himself about how she always remembered everything, stuck out his arm out behind him as the door closed to wave good bye.

Donna then stood up and began to organize the rest of his folders. "This seems to be a good trip so far," she said to the desk, which said nothing in return, as desks are known to do. She was sure, however, that if the desk could talk, or if the beds could talk, or if the TV could talk, that they would all agree with her wholeheartedly.


	2. Breaking News with a Story

I'm back with a second chapter to this nonsense story. This is basically one huge dialogue between Donna and C.J., but it does have a purpose, I promise. I would state the purpose, but then I doubt people would read, and I'd like people to at least skim it. Normally, now would be the time to go on to excuse myself for the mistakes and what have you (and my invented idioms --- I did that in the last chapter), but enough excuses. I may not have proofread enough, but I just am into writing this right now. :)

Oh, P.S. --- the only thing I actually need to excuse myself for is the characters. I'm not good with doing justice to Aaron Sorkin's magnificent creations. Oh well.

* * *

Taking a big sip of her wine, C.J. started to talk. 

"I guess I think it's sort of depressing. I mean, here I am, a woman who, as I have stated before to Josh, is clearly in her prime, and I'm unlucky in love to an extreme degree. The only men who are interested in me are men I can't date. Or, well, the only man who _has_ been interested in me is Danny, and you well know why we can't be together. It's just pretty damn stupid right now, Donna."

"No, no, I know what you mean," Donna replied. "I remember about, maybe, five years ago, my sister was getting married, and at the rehearsal dinner, I was involved in this conversation between my other sister and the matron of honor for the wedding, Ellen. They started to talk about how they had met _their _husbands, and started to advise me on love somewhat. It was just a beautiful conversation that made me feel sort of depressed, but still --- well, treasure it to this day."

"A beautiful conversation? What did they say?"

"It might be one of those times where you had to be there. But, anyway, I remember my sister went first. And, I knew most of her story, but it was still really interesting to hear her say all the details because I hadn't heard some of them before, because, I'm the kid sister, you know?

"She started out talking about how they met, and it was when she moved into her in college. He was a junior, she was a freshman, and he was involved in this group that helped new students move in. They got along really well, he was helpful, nice, and he was cute, so she decided to see him again.

"The next night, they went out to dinner, and, when the waiter came over to ask them for their order, they hadn't even looked at the menu. Both my sister and Ellen started gushing there and I was told that a situation like that is always a good sign.

"Then later, the guy invited my sister back to his dorm room to show her something and he didn't put the moves on her like she thought she would."

"And we all know that if any of the Moss girls are alike, they all wanted the moves to be put on them."

"Oh, shut up. Let me finish my story, okay?

"Well, so, yes, then, my sister put the moves on him. And the rest, she says, is history."

"The guy you're talking about -- he's your brother-in-law now, right?"

"Yeah. They've been married for eight years."

"Has what happened to your sister ever happened to you before? Anything like that?"

"Well, the menu thing happened before."

"And you haven't married this guy, even after the prudent guidance?"

"Well, it was fairly recent."

"So, tell me about it!"

"After. I want to finish the story. I still have another entire half to go, you know."

"Okay, I think I have enough wine to get me through this spiel."

"Oh, once again, shut up.

"Anyway, so, then Ellen started to talk about how she and her husband met i---"

"In the Bahamas, on a lone moonlit walk along the sandy beaches?"

"Where the hell did that come from?"

"I guess I've already drunk too much."

"I'll say.

"No. Ellen and her husband met in a bar."

"A bar? Like, he used a sleazy pick up line and Ellen fell in love?"

"No, but your cynicism is adorable in this situation.

"They started chatting, and realized they had a lot in common. He gave Ellen his business card and Ellen only gave him her last name, but told him where she lived. Then, two days after, he found her number and called her."

"I'm assuming that either this guy has the CIA on his side, or Ellen has a very interesting last name."

"There aren't too many Niffenpulpertons in Wisconsin."

"Niffenpulperton?"

"Yes. May I continue, please? I like chatting with you, C.J., but I'd like to just finish my story, preferably before you get completely smashed."

"I'm not going to get smashed, Donna. I'm just a bit drunk and there's nothing wrong with that after an honest day's work."

"How right you are, C.J., but, you see, the interesting thing about drinking, especially after an honest day's work, is that sometimes people drink in bars, and then meet a person who later calls them two days later, allowing sparks to fly."

"That was clever."

"I thought so.

"Now, Ellen couldn't believe that the guy had actually called her. He had tracked down her phone number, but Ellen just didn't think that he was right for her. However, she agreed to a date with him anyway. They went out the next day, and Ellen saw him every day for the next month."

"Then they got married and lived happily ever after?"

"To some degree."

"That's a nice story. But, this stuck with you from five years ago?"

"Yes, because it was about true love and how it can be found in the strangest of places."

"Boy, is this one girly conversation."

"Well, yes, C.J., but this is our girls' night."

"How true. But, now, pray tell, you told me the menu has happened to you before, but has the bar happened as well?"

"No, but the getting together with someone you thought wouldn't work has."

"And, once again, I have no idea which guy you're talking about, and if so, why haven't you married either two? Or, better yet, why aren't you with either of them? Neither of these is Dr. Free Ride, is it?"

"I like how Josh's nickname for my ex-boyfriend has stuck with the rest of my co-workers. And, no, neither of these are Dr. Free Ride."

"So, well, what happened to Menu and Bar?"

"Well, Menu and Bar are both one guy."

"Okay, then what happened to the one guy?"

"He's still around."

"With you, presently?"

"Yeah."

"Well, who? Donna, I had no idea you were dating someone."

"He's pretty special."

"I'm sure he is if he relates to both the menu and bar story."

"He relates to the bar story in the sense that it was against the odds that we would ever be together, and yet, we are, though it's not really too widely known yet. He relates to the menu story because with almost everything I do and have done with him, I've been swept into conversation and forgotten about my task. Not for too long, though, because then we both realize and get back in action."

"You're killing me, Donna. A name _would_ be nice, you know."

"No, C.J., because you first really need to understand that this guy is extremely important to me, and these two stories signified true love for my sister and for Ellen, and this guy signifies true love for me."

"Donna, you're in love?"

"Yes. And you know him, too."

"I do?"

"Yes."

"Do I know him well?"

"Yes. And if you weren't a little bit drunk I'd bet this would come to you a lot faster than it is."

"No. No. No! It can't be! No! This is --- too good to be true! It isn't? It can't be!"

"It is."

And they sat in silence for a few seconds, with C.J.'s jaw dropped.


	3. You're Doin' Fine, Oklahoma

Only one slight comment to make for this chapter.

If anyone knows the name of the bar that Josh takes Amy to and the only song the piano player knows how to play is "Surrey with the Fringe on Top", please leave a comment with the name of the bar. The name is right there, but I just can't think of it. I needed it for this chapter, but I'm far too lazy to go and pop in the correct DVD to find the name. I can see the whole conversation between Josh and Donna in my head, just not the name of the bar. You know, the whole "where are you taking her?" and then "the bar name which I can't remember" and then "I like that place" and then "I figured you would" or something like that. Annoying.

So, DAZZLE me with your TWW trivia by commenting with the name of the bar. It'll also make me stop beating myself up inside over the name of it.

Oh, and, obviously, this entire story I have going is alternate universe, but I just figured I'd clarify that now. I don't think I'll ever mention Amy in here, but who knows, maybe. Even though I'm a JD 'shipper, I don't hate Amy. I think that makes me a traitor...

Other than that, all my other preceding statements go for this entry, too.

Oh, and sorry (once again) because the slight comment turned into a detailed note. I guess it's because I'm about two hours earlier than I have been for posting the latest chapter and it seems strange to be stopping procrastinating all the other writing I should be doing right now so early. :)

Enjoy.

* * *

He strutted up to her desk, very chipper and upbeat --- especially for 7:30 on a Saturday morning. 

"Hello, darling." he said.

Donna looked up, confused.

"Well, hi, Josh. Good to see you're awake on this nice, early, Saturday."

Generally, Donna thought, there was no possible way Josh could be in this grand of a mood on a Saturday morning unless the night before he'd --- well, had spent some quality time with her. Also, what was up with the darling? It was quite a good thing that not everyone was running around like on a weekday. Donna didn't really feel like being the subject yet again of office gossip.

"I am indeed awake and in a glorious mood, Donna. Do you know why that is?"

"Because you took a shower and had some coffee?"

Josh looked at her, the corners of his mouth going up into a smile.

"Well, yes, dear, that would be why I am awake. But, you see, the real importance of this little thing we have going on right now is the reason why I am in a glorious mood."

"Maybe it's because it's a Saturday, you have a minimal amount of meetings, and could potentially be out of the office by 12:30?"

"All very good reasons, my sweetheart, but, no, I have a particular one in mind."

Donna began to rack her brain. What on earth could Josh be so excited about that he would be using constant pet nam--- then it hit her.

"Oh, my God, you talked to C.J., didn't you?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Josh said, running behind Donna's chair and spinning her around to face him. "I spoke with C.J. on my way into the building and found out someone told her about a certain relationship that had been going on. Donna, it was so very educated of you to first speak of our scandalous relationship to the press secretary. Seeing as she gave it the okay to some degree, I can now do _this_ in the office." Josh threw himself towards her, beginning a passionate kiss.

Finally breaking away, Donna began to explain herself.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it last night, it's just that I knew you were tired and I didn't get home until really late. And, I know that I said I might come over after C.J. and I had drinks, but, Josh, you were so tired an---"

"Donna, please, don't worry about it." Josh took her hand and began to walk with her, their fingers intertwined.

"I'm not upset with you. I have _no_ reason to be upset with you. I'm thrilled, Donna. You and I can have somewhat of a more average relationship, minus the threat of media coverage. That, to me, is superb. You know I want it." They stopped walking and Josh took her into his arms.

"Thank you, Josh," Donna sighed. It felt pretty damn good to be in his arms after a whole night alone. "Are you sure it's okay though? I mean, I'm fine with telling everyone here, to the most part, I just don't want to turn this into a national scandal. I know it's highly unlikely, but still."

"Donna, please. Don't worry about it," he said, taking her face in his hands. "What's that name of that musical about the western state, the one with the song they play at that bar? The 'chicks and ducks and geese' song?"

"You mean 'Oklahoma!'?"

"Yes. That one. There's another song from that musical that fits this perfectly, because, Donna, I don't care what happens. You know? The song says 'people will say we're in love', and whatever, that's true. We're in love, and, as stupid as this sounds, relating it to Rodgers and Hammerstein, it's true. Who cares what people think. That's what Shirley Jones and, oh what's his name---"

"Gordon MacRae."

"That's what Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae said. So, if they did it in a musical, it can totally be done in real life."

"Aww, Josh!" Donna squealed. "You just called me your own Laurey!"

"Yeah," he replied, smiling a mile wide with his dimples. "Now, what's the name of the guy she's with?"

"Curly."

"Curly? That's his name? What kind of name is that?"

"A cute one. He's a cowboy, you know."

"Ah, and yes, being from Conneticut, I am well versed in the art of cattle roping."

"My own Curly!" Donna laughed, patting the top of Josh's head. "Though, Josh, you know, Laurey didn't start out in the beginning with Curly. It's quite an interesting story."

"Is it one that you can finish in the time it takes for you and me to walk to the mess, hand in hand?"

"Maybe, but you're going to have to listen to it anyway."

Josh grabbed her hand, and they walked off, talking about Laurey Williams, Jud Fry, and Curly McLain, with Josh rolling his eyes just to see Donna's adorable expression when she pretended to be angry, and the smile when she accepted his game.


	4. Scandal Saves

I guess this could be seen as another transition chapter, but I think it's remotely interesting. I don't know whether or not I think it's really that well written and plotted, but whatever. Oh, and obviously, this is alternate universe.

REALLY IMPORTANT: I have to warn you. The ending to this thing is utterly cheesy and stupid. Oh well.

* * *

"Well, who'd have known," Sam mumbled to himself as he watched CNN. 

"C.J., you didn't hear _anything_ about this?" he asked, as the press secretary hurried around in a flurry of chaos.

"No, Sam, I didn't." She shot a dagger glare at him. "You'd be wise to stop nagging me about it, because I know absolutely nothing, am completely unprepared to brief the press corps, and haven't slept more than four hours a night in the past week."

"I'm sorry." He replied. "I just can't believe that no one knew anything about this. It's just one of those developments that people generally don't hear about until the person's been dead for twenty years."

"Yeah, well, someone's got it."

"I'll say."

"No one knew about this. I mean no one, not even Leo or the President?" Toby screamed, running into the room.

C.J. threw down her file. "No. Let me repeat this, once again, for the hundredth time in the past ten minutes since the story broke, no one knew anything."

"This had to have been the best kept secret in politics for the past ten years." Toby said. "Not even one leak to the media until today, to some reporter. Who's getting the credit for this story, because, you better believe it, if this thing turns out to be true --- which I think it will --- we're looking at a Pulitzer Prize for that guy."

"I've heard that it came from a reporter from a Southern paper," said C.J., "but I have no idea which one. We could be talking about a guy from some radical right paper that circulates in about three counties in Georgia, for all I know."

Toby rocked back and forth on his heels and C.J. continued to search for information, with aides running in and out of her office every second.

"You know what this story means though, don't you?" Sam asked.

"That you think you've known a political figure who has been around forever and yet you don't?" Toby said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"No, among other things, it means that Josh and Donna are off the hook."

C.J. looked up. "What do you mean? Because of this story, you think their news cycle is completely over?"

"Yeah," Sam replied, pacing slightly. "No one's going to bother to write about the fact that the White House Deputy Chief of Staff is dating his assistant when there's a huge story with a high-ranked politician. They're basically saved, C.J., not that there was much of a problem to begin with."

"I'm not so sure, though. Yeah, this is big news, and so Josh and Donna might become a sidebar for all the national papers, but they're going to be tabloid fodder for months."

"Who cares about the tabloids?"

"Surprisingly, many people, as they sell quite well." Toby chimed in.

"I don't know," Sam said, beginning to smile. "I think that they timed this perfectly. I mean, there's no way they could have done it, but the two of them certainly have some good intuition."

"Speaking of Josh," Toby grumbled, sitting down on C.J.'s sofa, "does anyone know if he has heard the news yet?"

Skillfully dodging all of the aides, Josh sprinted in.

"The Speaker of the House had a child with another Senator's wife five years ago, and now another Congressman's wife is coming forward?" he said, breathlessly.

"Do you have super sensitive hearing or something?" Sam asked. "Toby just asked if you had heard the news."

"If I had heard it? Seriously, you asked that?"

"Yes," Toby said.

"The biggest shock story in politics since the President's MS and you think I would be ill-informed?" Josh squealed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Of course I heard it. And, come on, C.J., you know there is no way that this is going to die down slowly. The Republicans are in for a big hit. Their most likely candidate for president has just been blown to smithereens!"

"And he was one of the biggest family values advocates in Congress," Sam remarked. "The poor guy is ruined. And, even more so, Josh's right, the whole party is going to be under scrutiny."

"Yeah, but the President isn't going to want us to make a huge deal out of it," C.J. replied. "You know how he reacted when he had to deal with that situation with Ken Cochrane and his wife."

"We don't need to make a big deal out of it and hurt the wife." Josh said excitedly. "The press will take care of it."

Sam extended his arm and pointed at Josh. "You know that this means that the Child Care Legislature will have to go through. We really have gotten handed a gift here."

"Yes." Josh said, pumping his fist a little bit and falling on to the sofa next to Toby. "This is going to work out well for us."

"It's going to work out especially well for you." Toby said, sitting himself up.

"What do you mean?" Josh was dumbfounded. He was a big supporter of the Child Care Legislature, but how else could the news help him?

C.J. sat down in her chair and sighed. "The story about you and Donna," she said, pushing back in her seat and removing her glasses, "has basically become a non-story. Sam thinks it's completely obsolete, but I'm still worried about the tabloids."

"No way." Josh said, jumping up. "C.J., this is... terrific! I mean---" Josh stopped, putting his hand on his head and looking down at the floor. He looked up smiling. "This is, just, great news. It's such a relief."

"You're very lucky, my friend." Sam said, putting his hand on Josh's back.

"I gotta go tell Donna."

"Yeah, you do." C.J. replied with a laugh.

Josh gave a great big smile and jogged out the door, running back a few seconds later to remind Sam and Toby to start working on the legislation.

"We've got it covered," they both replied, as Josh ran off to find Donna.

Zipping through the crowded hallway, Josh ran to her desk. "Donna!"

"What?"

"We're -- off -- the hook." He panted, out of breath.

Donna's face lit up. "You mean, the relationship going public? We don't have to worry about it?"

"No." Josh kissed her on the top of her head. "We've got one unfaithful Speaker of the House to thank for that. Our story is a sidebar, it's a non-story."

"It's a non-story," she said airily, repeating him. "A non-story. Something we've been worried about for months. A non-story. Josh, it's a non-story!" Donna started hitting his arm.

"I know!" Josh pulled her up out of chair, hugging her. "We're lucky," he whispered into her ear.

"Don't I know it."

"I love you, Donna."

"I love you too."

And even in the middle of the bullpen, it was okay for them to be in each other's arms. The relationship between the White House Deputy Chief of Staff and his assistant was public, and, most importantly, for the good of the administration, and for the good of the couple, a non-story.


	5. Not Briefed on Gossip

What do we love? TRANSITION! When do we want it? ...um, not right now! We've just had TWO chapters of transition! How much more transit do you NEED?

I promise that I'll actually write a real chapter tomorrow. Perhaps with a bit less dialogue. An actual chapter, you know? Maybe like my first one. Or, maybe more like my second, which is dialogue with a story. We'll see. I've just been terribly busy today, and still have a ton of work left. I did manage to write this thing, which is actually pretty long, but I didn't actually move the plot. At all. This story is about Josh and Donna, and, yet, there is no actual Josh _or _Donna in this chapter. Just lots and lots and lots of poor dialogue. Darn.

TOMORROW. Tomorrow will be a day for an exciting chapter, I hope.

Oh, and I didn't proof read at all. Just to warn you.

* * *

The Oval Office is the room in which the President of the United States of America devises and executes complex strategies and makes decisions for the good of the American people. Tonight, however, it would become a living gossip column. 

"What's this I hear about Josh and Donna?"

Leo looked up from his memo. "You didn't catch C.J.'s press conference, sir?"

"No," the Commander-in-Chief replied. "I was in the middle of a meeting with the Ambassador to Paraguay, and then all hell broke loose with a national scandal involving the highest ranked Republican member in Congress and I had to try to act in a manner that didn't make me look heartless or un-presidential."

"Oh. Yeah."

"So, what happened?"

"Well, sir, this is probably a matter you would rather take up with Josh."

Bartlet rolled his eyes. "I plan on taking it up with Josh, Leo, but I'd like to know what the whole situation is about."

"You mean you don't know anything?"

"No."

"Well, in that case, I can have Margaret get you a transcript of C.J.'s briefing. That way you wouldn't have missed a step."

"Leo, just tell me."

There was a pause.

"Well, sir, I'm a bit hesitant ab---"

"I can tell you're hesitant, Leo, but if I knew what the situation was that was making you hesitant, I might be a little more at ease."

"It's just I don't like talking about other people's relationships when you could just ask one of them yourself."

The President's eyes widened. "What do you mean, relationship? Has something occured between the two of them?"

Leo sighed. It wasn't that it was a terrible thing that Josh and Donna were dating. It was a terrible thing that he would have to be the one to tell the President. As much as he loved Jed Bartlet, he wasn't in the mood to hear him ramble on about life and love and the work place for ten minutes before asking Charlie to find Josh. There was no use in putting it off. Leo had to be the one to tell him.

"It seems, sir," he said, rubbing the side of his face, "that Josh and Donna have begun to date."

"They're dating? Leo, when did all this start?" Bartlet's excitement level grew.

"Are you sure you don't want me to get you the transcript? It would give you all the information."

The President swiped his hand in the air. "Ah, alright. Enough with you. I can see clearly you're not the romantic type. You're off the hook for this one."

"Thank you, sir." Leo took a step towards his office. "I'm going to go back and make some phone calls if that's okay."

"Sure," Barlet replied, smiling. "I'm going to stay a bit, find out a good story."

Leo turned around. "Be sure to take good notes," he said seriously. "Abbey will want to hear everything before she talks to Donna."

"Should I call in one of the secretaries?"

"Nah, just take a mental note. Even if you forget some stuff, you know she'll be in talking to Donna the next morning."

The President chuckled. "Have a good evening, Leo."

He took a step back and sat down in his chair, thinking for a minute. Folding his glasses and placing them on the table he stood up, walked over, and opened the door.

"Charlie?"

"What can I do for you, sir?"

"I need you to get Josh and tell him to come in here."

"Yes, sir. Would you like him right now?"

"Yeah." said, Bartlet and beginning to walk back in to the Oval Office. He stopped and said "Say, Charlie, you wouldn't happen to know anything about the situation with Josh and Donna, would you?"

Charlie put the phone down from his ear and stopped dialing.

"Well, sir, I do know what was told in the press briefing."

"No, no," Barlet replied. "I was wondering if you knew anything more than that."

"Sir, I'm not really comfort---"

"What is it about telling me about the relationship between by Deputy Chief of Staff and his assistant? You and Leo --- both of you --- tell me nothing. I _am _the President, you know. Nearly all-powerful. If you committed a crime, I would have pardoned you, but now I'm not so sure."

"Well, thank you for your kindness in potentially pardoning me." Charlie said skeptically. "But, all do respect, sir, I think the reason why Leo and I are both avoiding telling you more details than you know is because we're trying to protect ourselves."

"Protect yourselves? From what?"

"A long lecture."

"From whom? Josh?"

"No, sir."

"From me? Charlie, what could I possibly have to say about two people dating?" The President looked shocked.

"Well, from previous experience, you have spoken to me quite a bit about how courtship was done in your time. And in the time of the Romans. And Medieval Europe."

"All worthwhile information, Charlie."

"Yes, sir, but then you're talking to me for ten minutes, and that means that it's ten minutes I could have been finishing work, ten minutes I could have been home sooner, ten minutes I could have been sleeping."

Bartlet gave him a look.

"It's not that I don't fully appreciate the wisdom that you share with me," Charlie said, retreating, "it's just that I've heard it before, and I wouldn't want you to strain your vocal chords by talking to me, and to Josh."

"You think you're funny, don't you."

"Not particularly, sir, but I really do have work to do. And, I still need to actually call Josh. Would that be okay, Mr. President?"

"Alright, alright." Bartlet said, walking over and grabbing the door to the office walk back in and shut it.

"But, honestly, Charlie, who are you to be saying what's in the mind of the White House Chief of Staff?"

"Sir, I believe, in this case, I know what Leo is thinking."

Arguing with Charlie right now was a losing battle.

"Oh, fine. Just get Josh in here, will you?"

"Absolutely, sir."


	6. Talkin' About a Revolution

TAH-DAH!

It's edited, to some extent. Thank you to TRINITYSTARGAZER3 and, once again, MISS JASADIN. I so appreciate the fact that you two wrote reviews so quickly!

So, here's chapter six. It's about 4,000 words long, which is four times the normal amount of my chapters. I hope people can get through it. To be quite honest, if I hadn't written it, I don't know whether or not I would have made it.

Now, I have one big question, then on to the main event:

**Should I continue this story or should this be the end?**

A comment on that subject would be highly appreciated.

* * *

Normally, I don't write my notes before I write my actual chapter. Today, however, I am writing the note beforehand. 

I've had a lot of difficulty sitting down and writing this chapter, mainly because I know it has to be good, and because I know where I want to go, but am not sure where to start. So, in short: writer's block sucks.

Except, I don't really have writer's block. I have something more like writer's procrastination. And, I was also busy --- somewhat. I just couldn't find the time to play with my story, which normally would have been a terrible pity, but wasn't since I've been hesitant towards writing this.

Also, also, also, BIG THANKS to my two faithful reviewers, KURSK and MISS JASADIN. You two have been stellar in your constant reviewing.

If anyone else wants to join in on the reviewing, feel free! Seriously, anything from an emoticon to a complete non-constructive criticism would be, by me, appreciated. (Anyone notice the little parallel I just made? The very end? Ainsley Hayes talking to Lionel Tribby? Ha. I'm proud of myself for that one. Except, of course, I wasn't writing in iambic pentameter. Oh, season two, good season.)

Hope this turned out all right!

* * *

If it weren't against the law, Leo McGarry would have been dead by now. 

His death would have been illegal, of course, because he would have been murdered.

In the bullpen.

With a stapler.

By Mr. Lyman.

Josh understood why he had to be in his office at 9:00 PM on today, the day that his relationship with Donna had become no big deal, but, still, he wanted to kill Leo.

With a blow to the head from a stapler.

It was very important to gear up for the big showdown over the Child Care Legislation, but, why couldn't Sam be doing it? Or Toby? Or anyone else in the entire world?

Scratch that. Anyone else besides Donna.

Seriously, Josh didn't care. His mother could be the one collecting information, and he wouldn't have been upset. Getting to the office early was no big deal, but, no, of course not, Leo wanted the information by midnight.

Before Josh turned into a pumpkin. How Cinderella.

Josh's train of thought was disrupted when is phone began to ring. I bet it's Donna, Josh thought to himself, Telling me that she wondered whether or not there had been an attack on the White House and I had been shot and killed. He picked up the phone, planning on hearing her sweet voice, whining about how his job sucked. Instead, he got Charlie Young.

"Hi, Josh."

"Oh. Hey, Charlie."

"Expecting someone else?"

"Sort of. What's up?"

"The President would like to see you in the Oval Office."

"Right now?"

"Yeah. And, just to give you a heads up, he's looking for information about you and Donna."

"Couldn't you have just given him the transcript from C.J.'s briefing?"

"Oh, believe me, Josh, I tried. He wants more information."

"I bet he does. I'm on my way."

Josh hung up the phone and put his face in his hands, sighing. It wasn't that he didn't like talking about the night he and Donna first kissed --- it's just that he wanted to be with her right now. Perhaps it was selfish, but, whatever. It's _Donna_. Any man would be selfish over spending time with her.

He pushed the chair out from under him forcefully, and began to walk, devising a plan as to how to explain the story to the President in the most concise manner. Yeah, he thought, The most concise way of telling the President what happened in more detail than C.J.'s briefing is just telling him that Donna and I first kissed in my office, late at night, after an argument. But, then, he'll want to know what the argument was about. Then I'm going to have to go into that day. And, what happened the week before. Dammit, I'm screwed.

Josh realized there was no way that he was going to be able to take the short road on this story. It was going to be complicated, but, so was the relationship. It fit.

Why was he feeling nervous? It didn't really matter that he was briefing the Commander-in-Chief. He did that all the time. Why was this time different? Oh, because he was bearing his soul to the leader of the free world. That's why. Josh then realized how truly short a walk it is from his office to the President's.

"Hey again, Charlie."

"You can go ahead in."

"Thanks."

"Good luck in there."

Josh took a few steps in.

"Josh, my boy!" the President yelled. "Come, come in! Sit down! Close the door! You, I'm afraid, have quite some explaining to do."

He shut the door and walked in, a frazzled expression on his face.

"Josh, you and I have had some lively discussions in our time knowing one another, wouldn't you agree?" the President said, sitting down in a chair and Josh following suit.

"Yes, sir."

"Then I must tell you I am hoping that this one will make the top five."

"Thank you for the heads up, sir."

"Josh, you must know by now that I am a romantic at heart, don't you?"

"I think you may have mentioned it at one time or another."

"Then surely understand why it is that I am so interested in learning about how you and the bright, beautiful, boisterous, and talented Donnatella Moss got together."

"Yes, sir, I do. And I'll tell Donna you think she's boisterous. She'll like that."

They paused.

"Okay, come on, get on with it! I'm a busy man, Josh. Governing can only take a small time out to hear you talk about your love life. Someone could blow something up any minute now, and before you know it, I could be whisked away to the situation room. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

"Well, if there were no civilian casualties---"

"Very funny. Now, spill."

Josh sighed and began to talk.

"Well, sir, as I am sure you know already, I first met Donna in Manchester at the Bartlet for America campaign headquarters, where she became my assistant."

Bartlet interrupted.

"Josh, I know the basic history behind you and Donna, I just want to get to the good part."

"I'm sorry, sir. I'll move along.

"So, about a month and a half ago, as you'll probably remember, I was spending a lot of time here working on marriage incentives and the bills we were trying to pass. I was very busy, and so I made Donna work as equally hard as me. Donna always works hard, sir, but in those few weeks, she worked like I've never seen her work before. Never missing a beat.

"We were spending quite a bit of time together, more than normal, and it was, to me, a thrill. Sir, I'm not quite sure if you've noticed --- other people have --- but, Donna and I have always had this 'thing' between us. I still don't know what it is to this day, but, that thing was making me absolutely crazy over spending time as much time with her as possible. I had the power to lock her in the office without receiving any complaints.

"Anyway, during one day in those weeks, Donna asked me if it would be okay if she went out with this guy for drinks that night. You know, she'd be gone for an hour, tops, and obviously I could manage without her, as we've done it before.

"But, here's where Donna went wrong. I didn't want her to have drinks with another guy. If she was spending time with another guy, liking another guy, then my chances were ruined. I was intrigued by the potentiality of finally being in the forbidden relationship.

"That's the thing though, sir, right there. It was a forbidden relationship. I started thinking, and knew that I had to let her go. She'd be back that night, and I was figuring that her date would go the way they usually do --- the guy seemed nice the first time she met him, but, the second time, when she spent more than ten minutes with him, she'd realize that he just wasn't her type. Then I could go back fantasizing about my pursuit of forbidden love and still feel like a decent human being. Things didn't work out according to plan, though."

"She came back, in high spirits, head-over-heels falling for the guy?"

"Exactly. She had met Mr. Right, and it wasn't her usual 'we met for five minutes at a party' Mr. Right. It was the 'we talked for an hour and had drinks and he was so sweet' Mr. Right. Give me five dates before that, and she would have come back upset. I would have been doing fine then."

"A turn of bad fortune for you."

"You can say that again. I was so --- violently upset with Donna then. She hadn't done anything wrong, I had been the one who let her go out, I wasn't behind with work; I was just being selfish. I'm still selfish to this day about Donna, but at least I now have just cause. That night I was being stupid.

"She came back and was just rambling on and on about the guy, and I just ignored her. She noticed I was ignoring her, but she rationalized that the reason I was saying maybe two words to her was that I was exhausted. Except, sir, I hold grudges. Donna came into work the next day and it was the same Josh she had left the night before.

"And then, I made my most idiotic mistake."

"You forbade her from seeing the guy?"

"She wanted to go out for drinks again. I specifically told Donna that I needed her in that night because we had an insurmountable amount of files to go through. I told her that if she didn't show up that night, she would be hurting the administration, you, me, and the American people."

"Did you really have something that important for her to do?"

"No. Not at all. So, when I gave her the assignment, she got angry, rightfully. So, then, instead of I not speaking to Donna, Donna wasn't speaking to me."

"How long did that last for?"

"A day and a half. She finally decided to confront me about how I was banning her from seeing people because I didn't think that they were good enough for her. Which was true. Those guys weren't good enough for Donna. Hell, sometimes, I don't think I'm good enough for Donna."

"You aren't. But that doesn't matter, you love her, and she loves you, that's all that matters, Josh."

"Thank you, sir. "

"What happened then?"

"I'm sorry?"

"What happened when she confronted you about how you were locking her away?"

"Oh, well, we got into a screaming match, which was 95 percent Donna in the beginning."

"But, near the end?"

"Near the end I yelled back. And exposed myself. A lot."

"Ah, the bold confession of true love."

"Yes, sir, but it wasn't really the bold confession. More like the jealous, mediocre confession."

"Well, what did you say?"

"I started in by saying that she had already been through a relationship with someone who completely under-appreciated who she was and what she did.

"That, to find someone who was worthy of her adoration, that she needed to know the person thoroughly.

"That, if she was going to fall in love with someone, she had to try them out for some time. She had to tell them what her life was like, what her job was like; how late she would be home at night, how long she would be at the office.

"I told her that she needed to find someone who understood her. Who wouldn't laugh at her quirks. Who would be ready to console her when she cried. Someone she had been to hell and back with, through thick and thin, night and day, right or wrong. Someone who knew that they couldn't live without her.

"I told her that she was too good for some guy she met at a party and asked her out for drinks without really getting to know her. I told her that knowing her is to love her. I told her that I knew her and I understood her. I told her that she was too good for anything less.

"I told her that if the guy didn't know that when he saw her every day he would smile at the sight of her face, she was too good for him. I said that if the guy didn't feel like he needed oxygen support to get by when she was away for days at a time, she was too good for him.

"I told her that I knew what it felt like to be away from her wanting the oxygen support. I knew what it felt like to see her every day and smile. I told her I knew what it felt like to love her and how she needed someone who felt those things, or else she should walk. Immediately. No questions.

"And then I stopped talking. And then there was a lot of silence."

"What happened next?"

"She walked out of my office, grabbed her stuff, and left."

"Did you chase after her?"

"No. I just stood there. I was in shock. I didn't know why I had said all those things to her. I didn't know what she was thinking. It was like I had just ripped out my heart and stuck it into her face for her to see, but, she didn't take it. She didn't deny it either. I just couldn't believe I had done it."

Josh was in a daze, remembering what it had felt like. Bartlet interrupted him.

"When did she come back?"

"What?"

"When did she come back?"

"Oh. The next morning."

"Did you say anything? Did she say anything?"

"She avoided eye contact with me when I came in, and then finally came in fifteen minutes later to tell me what I had to do that day."

"And then did you talk about it?"

"No. I tried to say something, but she was strictly business.

"I went through the day thinking about her, and how I could fix our relationship. I didn't know whether I should say that I hadn't meant what I had said the night before, that I was being too hard on the people she dated, that I was being just my egotistical self when I mentioned how I was perfect --- I just had no idea what to say, and I couldn't ask anyone for advice without it looking suspicious.

"I think I ended up waiting until around 7:30 until I called her into my office and asked her to shut the door. I said I was sorry and that I shouldn't have attacked her the way I did and said what I had said. All she said was that she accepted my apology and that she really had to finish getting some memos in order for the next day, so I let her go, and sat in my office for another hour, trying to work. But, I couldn't get anything done because I knew she was outside my door, just a few feet away.

"I went out of my office, and mostly everyone was gone. Sam, Toby, and C.J. were in with the speech writing staff trying to write that commerce speech --- basically everyone left in the building besides Donna and me were in there.

"It was dark and it was quiet, except for Donna organizing and moving papers. I came by and said Hi, and she came right out at me, saying

'_You know, you really shouldn't do that to me.'_

'_What?'_

'_Lie to me.'_

'_Donna, I'm sorr---'_

'_No, you don't understand. You can criticize whoever I go on dates with, but you can't say things you don't mean about you.'_

'_Wait, what are you talking about?'_

'_Last night, Josh. Last night! Why are you making this so difficult?'_

'_Donna, I'm not trying to make you more upset. I already tried to apologi---'_

'_And I said that I accepted your apology. It's just that you said something that you didn't apologize for and I don't know what to think about you. I don't know if you meant it, and I really can't take this!'_

'_Donna.'_

'_Josh, are you in love with me?'_

'_I---'_

'_You said you were, last night, out of context. That's what's been driving me insane, Josh. You have always denounced the people I have dated, and you're implying it's because you're in love with me. If you have been in love with me, why haven't you just said it?'_

'_Because I've been scared! I'm scared, Donna. I'm scared out of my mind. I'm scared because I know that I am in love with you. I've never been like this before. It scares me. I don't want to lose you, but I know I can't be with you. I'm scared because if you and I were to become something, we'd be hurting the people that we work with. The people that have always been there for us. I'm not in a position that makes it easy for me to date someone, especially not when she's working for me. You're my subordinate, and right there makes it national scandal! _

'_Yes, Donna, I'm in love with you. I sound absolutely insane, but, you and I have spent so much time together. I know so many things about you, I know the way you act --- I know stupid things that no one really needs to know about. I go crazy when you're living your life separately from mine. It drives me crazy, Donna, but I can't do it. We can't be together. I want to, so badly. But I'm scared. My position doesn't allow us to be together.'_

'_That's crap, Josh. That's absolute crap! You're scared? You're admitting that you're a coward? What is wrong with you? Do you really think that it would be that important that you and I are together? That the world would stop, stare at us, and think that the Bartlet Administration condones inter-personnel dating? _

'_Look at Charlie and Zoey, Josh. Aside from the fact that they're an interracial couple and have been shot at, the media hasn't had a frenzy over them. The President's personal aide and his daughter. If Charlie were white, no one would care at all. The fact that a bunch of lunatic white supremacists decided that Charlie should have been killed is not a statement that two people dating from within the President's spectrum is completely out of line. _

'_You, Josh, are being an absolute coward. I can't believe you. You are so righteous in whatever you do. You fight for people's rights. You try to make the world a better place. But, when it comes to making yourself happy and making someone else happy, you lose. You fail.'_

"And then she walked into my office with some files to put on my desk, so I followed right after her, slamming the door as I walked in.

'_I'M SORRY, DONNA. I am really, and truly, one hundred percent sorry! I want to throw the rule book out the window. I want to be free of the chains that frown upon you and I being together. I'm crazy about you. I'm in love with you. I want it to --- I just --- you're amazing, Donna. You really are. I don't even deserve you. But I want to be with you, more than anything I've ever wanted in my entire life. It's stupid. This sounds stupid. But it's true. And it's real. And it sucks, Donna. It sucks.'_

'_Then change it!'_

'_How?'_

'_Forget about everything when it comes to you and me. Just let it be what it is.'_

'_I can't do that, Donna.'_

'_Yes, you can. I know you can. Josh, please. Don't do this to me.'_

"She started crying --- a lot.

'_This is horrible Josh. I can't believe you. I don't know if I can trust you ever again. I can't believe this. I said I'd never admit this to you, and here I am. Look at me, Josh. I'm standing here, in your office, crying because I've realized that you love me, but you can't do anything about it. You're going to just stand there, and wish that things would change. Nothing's going to change Josh, nothing. Nothing will change unless you do something.'_

"The tears were just falling rapidly. I didn't know what else to do. It's impossible to look at someone you care for that much and not hold them. So I reached out and took her into my arms.

'_Donna. Come here.'_

"She reluctantly came to me and I just shhh-ed her and stroked her hair. She just kept talking as I held her.

'_Why can't you just change it, Josh.'_

'_I want to, I really do.'_

'_I thought I lost you once, but you survived and now you're here.'_

'_I know that. And I wouldn't be here without you.'_

'_You should live your life the way you want to. Change it, Josh. Revolution.'_

"There was silence. I just kept hugging her and she kept sniffling. Then the sniffling stopped, and we were just standing there, holding one another. I pushed away, leaned down, and kissed her. And then after that I pulled away and said

'_I'll change.' _

"She then started kissing me, and, that's how it all started. That's where it began, sir."

There was a brief pause. The rhythm of the conversation had changed.

"You're becoming the seed of change, Josh. You both are."

"Thank you, sir."

Another pause.

"Charlie made a joke earlier about how, when talking about true love, I go into talking about true love in different ages: Roman Times, Medieval Times, and my generation, and how I would keep someone here for hours, talking to them all about love and my knowledge of it."

"I_ can_ see where he would get it, Mr. President."

"Both he and Leo wouldn't dare tell me about what happened between Donna and you, all because of their fear of my historical data. But I'm glad I scared them."

"Why's that?"

"Because you, Josh, just opened up to me more than I've ever seen you do before. Sure, I know things about you; we talked the night your father died. But this is something positive you're opening up about. You're happy, Josh, I can tell."

"I am, sir."

"I don't ever want to hear you say that in the matters of your relationship to that wonderful girl, you cannot do certain things due to your job to protect me. You have my blessing on this, Josh. I support Donna and you entirely. I've stood by Leo when he was attacked for his alcohol and drug addiction, and I'll stand by you two on much less dramatic circumstances.

"Now, get the hell out of here and go see that girl."

Josh smiled. "Thank you, sir. You have no idea how much what you just said means to me."

"Eh, well, it's the best I can do right now. Plus, I'll be making my wife a very happy woman when I inform her of this development with full details. You deserve a little bit of my good wishes."

"Glad to help as I can."

The President stood up and walked over to his desk. Josh stood there, watching him.

"Really, Josh, go! I've had enough of talking to you. Go home and see Donna, and tell her I say congratulations. Tell her that her boyfriend has quite a catch, and, if he ever hurts her, to come directly to me. I can have the secret service on her in no time."

"I'm not quite sure that's legal, sir."

"Oh, sure it is! You've seen Zoey's detail. All I have to do is adopt Donna, and then no one would care. As a member of the first family, she's entitled to the Maryland National Guard, for goodness sake. Now go!" Bartlet said, grabbing his briefcase and walking towards the door.

"Actually, sir, I can't leave just yet. I have to finish some stuff for Leo. He wanted it by midnight."

The President stopped. "Leo told you to do that?"

"Yes, sir."

"Josh, don't listen to him. Leo's having a bit of fun with you, that's all. Certainly you remember what he did with Sam and Mallory. Go home. I'll take care of him."

Josh smiled. "Thank you, sir." He walked out of the room with a spring in his step, knowing that soon, he would be seeing Donna and would be able to tell her that the President thought she was boisterous. It was quite the compliment.

Bartlet walked over to Leo's office and opened the door, looking in to talk to the Chief of Staff.

"Good evening, sir. How did your meeting with Josh go?"

"Leo, did you tell him to stay here to finish up some stupid assignment of his before midnight?" Bartlet started in on Leo immediately.

Leo smiled. "Yeah, well, I thought I'd have a little bit of fun with him."

"The poor boy just got his relationship out in the open! He deserves a celebration. You, my friend, are not a romantic."

"Well, I told Donna about it. I think Josh'll be pretty happy when he walks in the door."

The President looked shocked.

"Leo! Setting up things for your fellow workers? When did this start?"

"Just a whim. The kid's been through enough hardship. Let him bask in the new enjoyment."

"Tomorrow's going to be a long day, you know. You really ought to go home and get some sleep. Everyone else is."

"Thank you, sir. I promise I'll leave within the hour."

"You better."

"Have a good night, sir."

The President walked out of Leo's office and outside into the portico. When he walked towards the residence, all he could think of was how he and Abbey got together. It was nothing like Josh and Donna, But romances are never all alike, are they? He smiled. It was good to have his staff happy. It was even better when the staff found happiness in one another. Even more when the staff found love.


	7. Sam

Sorry for the severe delay in updates. I promise I'll do more updates over the weekend. The more free time I have the better I can write (though this doesn't really prove it). I'm also going to be wrapping this up reasonably soon, I think.

I labored over writing this stupid chapter. It's basically a little mini-ficlet about Sam, but that's okay. Josh does get involved in it. And, it does actually go along with the plot or lack there of I've had throughout.

So, yeah, look forward to a few new chapters.

I just realized how I'm going to finish this. I don't know in how many chapters that will be, but whatever. Here's another 1,400 words for you all. :)

* * *

What was it that signified whether a woman friend wanted to become more than that? 

Sam Seaborn was plagued by that confusion.

It wasn't that he didn't have any women friends. He had plenty of them; Donna was testament to that. She and Sam were best friends, and there had never been any confusion as to whether or not she wanted to be more than that. Perhaps it was because she had always been in love with Josh. But, no, Sam thought, With Donna it has always been pure friendship. None of that serious flirting. No, Donna was never a problem. Come to think of it, no one has really been as much of a problem as _she _has.

_She_. The blonde Republican lawyer who kicked his ass on television --- Ainsley Hayes.

With Ainsley, things had always been a bit hard to read. They'd flirt back and forth in engaging conversation, but, Sam never knew where exactly the line was drawn. He had come to grip with the fact that he definitely had a crush on the Associate White House Counsel, but he didn't know whether or not his feelings were reciprocated. It was all for the best, he thought, because he and Ainsley could never be a couple. Inter-office dating seemed to be frowned upon. That was, however, up until Josh and Donna broke down that unspoken rule's Berlin Wall. Sam's somewhat stable world had come to a crash.

He could ask out Ainsley Hayes. And not be reprimanded.

But, there was the problem. It was, most certainly, the million dollar question: did Ainsley like him?

Sam went to work thinking out multiple scenarios for her response. If Ainsley did in fact like him, they could go out for dinner one night. That would be fine, even though it would only be one date.

Then, say the date went really well. Obviously they'd want to go out again. Now they needed a label. Were they really dating? Were they in a serious long-term commitment? That mattered a lot. Sure, Josh and Donna went public despite the normal qualms, but, would he and Ainsley be able to do it as flawlessly as they had? It's not as if a major political sex scandal comes out of the woodwork every day.

If he and Ainsley were going to pull their relationship going public, they'd need some major distraction as well. Not necessarily a sex scandal, but something big. Maybe a major offensive being put out by the White House on some silly legislative proposition. That way C.J. could just throw the relationship in the briefing casually. You know, easy as pie. Sam had the whole thing figured out in his head.

First, C.J. would walk in and say hello to all the press in the room. She'd open up with the big news, saying that she would answer all questions at the end of the briefing. Directly after the big story, she'd throw in the fact that White House Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn and Associate White House Counsel Ainsley Hayes were currently dating. Then she could throw in some tidbit about the President. Or perhaps the economy of Portugal. Or a story about Alaskan sled dogs --- it really didn't matter. Then she'd add another fact about the big story, and open the floor to questions. Who would care about Sam Seaborn's love life when there was big legislative news in Washington?

Sam began to talk to himself out loud.

"This is pathetic. You're sitting here writing a 'choose your own ending' love story."

He pinched his nose between his eyes. Sure, it was his own fault he was crazy about Ainsley, but he had someone else to blame for the constant scheming.

Josh was about to receive a Sam Seaborn scolding. Or, well, at least some sort of speech. Whether or not it was severe really depended on how much Sam could put the words together.

Walking briskly, Sam poked his head into Josh's office.

"Hey. Can we talk for a minute?"

"Sure," Josh said, turning away from his computer.

Sam shut the door and sighed. It was going to be difficult to articulate this without looking insane.

"Josh, I have a bit of a problem."

"What's up?"

"Well, you see, I was thinking about asking Ainsley Hayes out---"

"Really?" Josh looked up, smiling. "You and Ainsley? That's great."

"Oh, not so much."

Josh looked puzzled.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Sam started, "if today weren't today and if yesterday hadn't happened, I wouldn't be here right now, in this situation, talking to you about a situation that I am in, because of a certain situation."

"…all right."

"You see, you and Donna going public opened the door for my asking Ainsley out. The thing is though, Josh, I don't know whether I should or not."

"Why not? You and she have always had some sort of chemistry, or something."

"Yes, but, putting aside the fact that Ainsley may not feel the same way I do, I'll still have to endure the wrath of the press, and I'm not sure what I should be doing."

"So you came here to ask me what the secret to my success was?"

"Not really. I more or less came in here to just, well, talk. I don't really have a point to my entire argument."

Josh scratched the back of his neck. "Well, if you like a girl, you should ask her out, Sam."

"I know that. I just don't know where to go from there."

"A restaurant is usually a popular choice, but, you could try ice skating. Or, maybe, if you want to go all out and everything, you could rent a boat, row down the Potomac and read her poetry."

"Do people actually do that?"

"Go to restaurants? All the time."

"No, the rowing thing."

"I don't know. I think Donna mentioned it once or something."

"So you've never done it?"

"Do you actually think I'd so something like that?"

"No, but it sounds sort of nice."

Rolling his eyes, Josh sat up.

"Sam. Just ask her out."

"But what about the media? How did you and C.J. set it up?"

"We didn't, not really. Donna did most of it."

"Speaking of her, where is Donna?"

Josh smiled. "She's in a meeting with Mrs. Bartlet."

"Why?"

"Relationship details."

"Donna's meeting with the First Lady to talk about what you and she have been doing?"

"We're a very appealing couple, Sam. Of course, you and Ainsley could be an appealing couple, too."

"But I don't know if it would be appropriate for the administration."

"Do you think we're only allowed one love story per term?"

"Well, it used to be you weren't allowed any love stories per term. But, then again, Grover Cleveland did get married while in office. To his ward nonetheless."

"His ward?"

"Yeah. She was the daughter of one of his friends who died."

"And he married her?"

"They went on to have several children."

"And you're worried about dating a White House lawyer?"

"Well, she is a Republican."

"Which shows that not only does the Bartlet Administration condone dating within its senior staff, but it also condones bipartisan relationships."

Sam laughed. "Okay. I'll back off a little."

"Yeah. You just need to relax. Ask her out. Spend some time with her."

"You're right. You're right --- I haven't even asked her out yet."

"Yeah."

Sam started walking toward the door. "There's nothing wrong with something preemptive, though."

"No. Never."

"We do preemptive strikes all the time in military operations."

"Which is precisely why you did it for this."

"I should ask her out. I really should."

"Yeah."

"Right now, even. I should go right now and say 'Ainsley, I was wondering if you'd be interested in having dinner with me tonight.' She can't refuse that."

"No one could."

"Good. Well, I'm going to go do that then."

"Okay."

"I should be back in ten, fifteen minutes, maybe. So, I'll be in my office, if you want to discuss this more. To help me, since you started this chain reaction."

Josh gave Sam a look.

"You know, this was fun, but I've got work to do."

"Right, right. Sorry. But, tell Donna I want to talk to her too. Maybe we should have a conference at lunch. You, me, and Donna. About leaking relationships to the press. Think you can do that?"

"Sam. Just go."

"Okay. I'm going. Just try to devise some strategies for me."

"I will." Josh said with a laugh, as Sam walked out of his office, looking determined.

"Oh, what Donna and I have done." He chuckled to himself, returning to his polling numbers and brainstorming ideas. Sam's obsessing didn't bother Josh, though, as he knew there was nothing better than expressing one's love for another.


	8. Prelude to the Meeting

I've been having a lot of trouble sitting down and writing the newest chapter for this story. So, I wrote this mini-chapter, and will continue this event in the next one, which, hopefully, will be longer and will also get finished today. I'm not making any promises, though, because I tend to break them. A lot. Oh well:)

* * *

Pelted with constant greetings, Abbey Bartlet made her way through the bullpen. With all the commotion made with a simple stroll through the West Wing, Abbey hoped Donna was at her desk. She didn't want to have to make the trip again. 

Luckily, the girl she was looking for was there.

"Donna."

She stood up. "Good morning, ma'am."

"Firstly, I just want to say congratulations, and convey my deepest grievances for your new endeavor. Josh can be darling, but he can also be a real pain in the ass."

"Thank you, ma'am," she laughed.

"Now, I'm sure Josh has told you that he and my husband had a long chat last night about you two."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Well, my husband --- though he calls himself a romantic --- has no sense of detail. I've gotten the highlights from his conversation, but I'd much rather hear the story from you. Would you mind joining me for breakfast so I can hear the _real _thing?"

The First Lady was asking her to breakfast. There was no way Donna could say no.

"I'd love to, ma'am," she said with a smile. "Let me just tell Josh where I'll be."

Donna pushed in her chair and knocked on Josh's door before opening it.

He motioned for her to come in, and she shut the door behind her. He was talking to someone on the phone, and then excused himself for a moment and covered the receiver with his hand.

"What's up?"

"The First Lady has asked me to breakfast."

Josh looked astonished. "Today?"

"Yeah."

"To find out more about you and me?"

"Uh-huh."

He smiled. "Go for it."

"Thanks."

She turned to open up the door and then stopped.

"Are you sure you'll be okay without me for an hour or so?"

"Yeah. I'm on the phone right now with Thomson and everything should be fine."

"Okay." She opened the door and stepped out.

"Hey, Donna?"

She stuck her head in the doorway.

"Have fun, okay? Don't be nervous about it."

"Thank you."

She walked back to her desk where Mrs. Bartlet was sitting, looking at a memo.

"All set?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good."


	9. The Meeting

No real note for this... sorry it took me so long. :(

* * *

The waiter carried over their food and placed it down in front of them. 

"Thanks." Donna said as she grabbed her fork.

Before she could even get a piece of food in her mouth, Mrs. Bartlet started interrogating her again.

"Now, what happened after you realized that you really had a crush on Josh?"

Donna blushed.

"Initially, I tried to avoid him as much as possible. I think the efficiency of my work probably declined to the ability level of someone with only one typing hand."

"Why? Wouldn't you want to see him more?"

"Did I ever. But we --- I --- had to stay professional. I couldn't let him know that I liked him more than just a friend. Or a boss for that matter."

"But the two of you --- you've never really been the usual boss-assistant relationship."

"No. Mostly because he didn't really hire me," Donna laughed.

"That and the fact that you have this intangible attraction with one another."

"People always say that, now, since we're public. But, I've never seen it. Neither has Josh. It's just been that we liked one another."

Mrs. Bartlet raised her eyebrows. "The two of you can't see the attraction between one another?"

"Well, we're attracted to one another," Donna retreated, "but that certain 'thing' that people say we have we've both never been able to grasp. Did people say that about you and the President?"

"Did people say there was a certain something between us?"

"Yes."

"Well, I suppose that they did, but every couple has something between them. It just differs. Jed and I have this constant faux-arguing between one another, which is basically our flirting.

"But, what you and Josh have is something magnetic. No one can figure it out. You two can't even see it. Zoey and I have talked about it, C.J. and I have talked about it, and none of us girls can figure out what it is. It's there, though."

"Is it really that apparent? The 'thing' between Josh and me?"

"Oh, Donna, it has been apparent for years. From just those long hours on the campaign to the balls and functions that you attended together, everyone saw it."

Donna poked at her food.

"I guess so. Maybe I would have seen it earlier, but I never could figure out whether or not Josh was actually interested."

"You know he's interested now, and yet you can't see it."

"Can you see the 'thing' with you and the President?"

Mrs. Bartlet stopped.

"Well, actually, that's a good point. I guess we never can tell what it is between the person we love and ourselves."

"Maybe that's a good thing, though. It's an X factor in the relationship."

"You're wise beyond your years, Donna. Except, however, when it comes seeing the magic between you and Josh. At least you finally got together, though. You're perfectly suited for one another, Donna."

"Thank you, ma'am. We're very happy."

The First Lady leaned back in her chair.

"Now that we've got that part over it, I want to hear some stories."

"What kind?"

"You know, a good love story! One you'd find in a cheap paperback."

"Josh told the President about the first time we kissed."

"Yes. But, what happened after that?"

"Well, actually, things didn't go wonderfully after that."

"What do you mean, 'things didn't go wonderfully' --- you had finally kissed!"

"That part was wonderful, yes, but the next few days weren't perfect.

"After we kissed there was just a lot of silence, which is rare between the two of us. That wasn't bad though, because, you know, we were just there, holding one another. And, I, of course, was a complete mess because I had been crying. The problem was that Sam walked in on us in each other's arms."

"Wait --- you're saying that Sam saw you two holding one another and didn't put two and two together?"

Donna laughed. "No, he didn't. He asked me why I had been crying and Josh said that my cat back home in Wisconsin had died."

"Sam's a genius, but he doesn't become suspicious when he finds you and Josh in each other's arms."

"Nope."

"Amazing. Then again, he is a man."

They paused.

"Well, what happened after that? Sam walked in, Josh lied to cover up the situation, and then what?"

"They both left to help with the commerce speech that everyone was working on, and so I was left by myself, deep in thought. I just sat at Josh's desk and stared off into space. I didn't want to leave without talking to him and figuring out what was going to happen next.

"At first I was ecstatic. Josh and I had finally happened! A dream come true! But, then I started thinking about how it would be damaging to the administration. And, those thoughts took over in my head. The scenarios of how if the press found out we'd become a national scandal, lose our jobs, hurt the President, were running rampant.

"After about ten minutes of panicking within, I decided to leave. I figured that if I left now, it could have just been a fluke and we'd go on as normal. I knew that I wasn't being honest to myself, but I had to do that to think that I was doing the right thing.

"I went back to my desk, grabbed my things, and threw on my coat. I didn't bother saying goodbye or letting anyone know I was leaving --- I bolted."

"No one saw you leaving?"

"Not Josh at least."

"Then what did he do when he realized you had left?"

"Well, I --- this is kind of pathetic, really --- I left the White House and then sat in my car and cried. Once he realized I wasn't hiding out inside the building somewhere he called my cell phone, where I tried to explain to him why what had just happened was a mistake."

"And did that work out well?"

"Not at all. Josh was yelling, I was yelling, and then he hung up on me."

"He hung up on you?"

"I may have said some slightly less than complimentary things as well as crushed his heart."

"Wait a minute --- the commerce speech? Was the day after the one we're talking about the day when it seemed that Josh was getting a bit too upset over you having the flu?"

"You remember that?"

"He was pissed at you for having influenza!"

"Ah. Yes. Well, Josh isn't great at hiding his emotions sometimes, even when they're disguised in a cloak of sickness."

"You weren't really home with the flu, were you?"

"No. I couldn't face Josh, so I slept until 10:00, woke up, ate ice cream, and watched daytime talk shows."

"You poor thing!"

"Well, it really was my own fault. I had screwed things up."

"But so did Josh."

"I guess so, but I didn't see it like that. And I don't know if he did, then."

"He fixed it?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"Well, he came over the next night, but I'm getting ahead of myself."

"There's more before that?"

"Oh, quite a bit.

"Around 5:00 or so, Josh called me and yelled some more, which wasn't exactly a morale booster.

"He was really upset, because, a few days before, he had 'bared his soul' to me and told me how much he cared about me. And Josh being Josh, decided that it wasn't fair that I was shutting him out because I thought it was more important that the administration prosper.

"I thought was being rational, but now, after the fact, I realize that I was being completely irrational. Hindsight is 20/20, of course."

"Of course, but everyone has second thoughts about what they did."

"Yes, but in this case, I was wrong.

"So, Josh yelled at me some more and told me how behind he had ended up being with work today and that if I didn't come into work tomorrow, he'd fire me. Josh had 'fired' me before, but this was the first time he had actually threatened to with vengeance. He was upset because I had let him down. You know, normally, when he'd say that he would fire me, I'd just reply back with a short little 'Impervious,' but this time it was different. The circumstances were nothing like they had ever been before."

"I'm assuming you showed up for work the next day."

"Yep, right at 8:00."

"Was Josh there to greet you?"

"No, I purposely timed it so that he would not be in the office when I got there."

"Why bother when you know you're not going to get a wide armed welcome."

"Exactly.

"At 8:00 Josh had a meeting up at the hill which was certain to take some time. So, I spent the majority of the morning filing things and catching up with the work I had missed the previous day. Luckily, I hadn't missed much, so soon I was working up to speed. Though Josh takes no credit for what he does, he can actually manage himself rather well. I just aid him.

"He got back around lunch, which was actually earlier than what I had expected. He walked into the bullpen and ignored me. Unfortunately, I couldn't just leave him alone after that."

"The timing with which he arrived was precisely the time when you needed to go into his office."

"Yes."

"Did you try to wait it out?"

"For ten minutes. I realized that it was to no avail, so I just dove in there."

"Metaphorically donning your armor, I imagine."

"From chain mail to bulletproof vest.

"I walked in and Josh was staring down at his desk. I handed him a folder and left."

"You weren't verbally assaulted?"

"No, to your surprise as much as mine. He didn't feel like spearing me right then. When he finally walked out of his office to go God knows where, he told me that it was Nice of me to show up to work today."

"Asshole."

"I didn't see him the rest of the day. I kept mainly to myself, but after he had been gone for about an hour after walking out and harassing me, I asked Sam if he knew where he had gone. Sam had no idea, so I tried Toby. Toby had no idea. Eventually I got Ginger to page him, and he returned the page. She told him that everyone was wondering where he had gone off to and if he was okay and all he said was that he was fine and would be back later tonight."

"Josh went AWOL. I can't believe it, for some reason."

"Turns out he was at the Potomac, staring at it."

"That's quite dramatic. And he got no work done, I suppose."

"Yes, but apparently that river spoke to him in many different ways.

"I waited around the office until about 7:00, and he still wasn't back. I had Sam call him on his cell phone this time, and he told Sam he'd be back in about a half hour and that I could go home, that he wasn't going to need me to stick around. So, I got everything organized and left. I didn't know what to think. Today should have been a day of reckoning for Josh, and yet I hadn't seen him at all. Up to that point, I thought that ignoring him and leaving the problem be was going to be the way to solve it, but at the end of the day I felt worse than at the beginning.

"Walking to my car I started to cry again, and thought to myself how I had cried more times in that week than I had in years, excluding Rosslyn. The fact that really got to me was how I had been crying about Josh. It seemed to me that ever since I had come back to work with Josh and the administration, the only times I had cried were over Josh. Sure, I was pretty broken up in general over Rosslyn when the President and Josh were shot, but, once it was known that the President was going to be fine, I cried for Josh quite a bit more. You were there, I'm sure you saw."

"If Kleenex had been having financial troubles, you certainly put them back in business that night and the next few days, Donna."

"Well, I probably gave them a boost in their stock over this time we're talking about, too. I went through every box I had in my apartment. Even when Josh came over that night."

"What time did he come over? Because, you left around 7:00, and he got back there at 7:30?"

"He came over around 9:00. By that time I was at home having another night with Ben and Jerry, watching chick flicks. That night the choice was While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, and Peter Gallagher. Have you seen that one?"

"The one where Sandra Bullock's the person that works at the train as a token person and Peter Gallagher falls on the tracks?"

"Yeah."

"And then the family thinks that she's his fiancée and it turns out she falls in love with the brother?"

"Exactly."

"That's a chick flick of some high quality."

"Tell me about it. It's also great if you're crying over the love of your life."

"Well, really it's a romantic comedy. So, you should have been laughing, not crying."

"If only. I wasn't really paying attention to the movie. Despite my efforts of trying to escape, I just couldn't. But, then, soon enough, someone buzzed my apartment."

"Josh."

"Yes. I went over answering it just saying Hello and then he said

'_Donna. It's me. Can you let me up a minute?'_

"I didn't really want to, so I had to make it difficult.

'_Why are you here?'_

'_I need to talk to you.'_

'_Phones do work, Josh.'_

'_I know that, but it's really important that I talk to you right now, Donna.'_

'_Is it something you could have told me today? Because, you know, you didn't have to leave the office all day and ignore me.'_

'_Donna. It's freezing out here. Please, just let me up?'_

'_I'm not exactly dressed for company.'_

'_It really doesn't matter, I swear to God I won't tell anyone what you look like, I just --- I gotta talk to you Donna. Right now.'_

"There was a bit of silence while I finally decided what it was I was going to do.

'_Fine. But only for a little while.'_

"I let him in and ran around trying to clean up my apartment. Grabbing all the tissues that I had just left lying around, then finally running to the mirror to check how I looked. The best way to describe my appearance at that point was train wreck. But, it didn't matter, Josh was coming up anyway.

"I heard him knock at the door, took a deep breath, and opened it. The deep breath I had taken right before didn't last long.

"Josh looked even more disheveled than I, his hair all messed up, and, even more important, he was carrying a big bouquet of flowers. So totally cliché, but, how can a girl resist. I couldn't even get a coherent sentence out. I just started crying again."

"Isn't it a wonder how when people cry all the time their tear ducts don't dry up? I'm the doctor and I don't even know how people can still cry after all that time."

"I swear, Dr. Bartlet, I must have super-human capabilities, because I just started balling. I couldn't even let Josh inside because I just started collapsing. I walked back and sat down leaning against the wall, crying my eyes out.

"Josh walked in, shut the door, and went right over to me, crouching down in front of me trying to get me to stop crying. It was losing battle, but Josh tried anyway. I just couldn't stop crying. Here I was --- I had been so upset with Josh the whole day, I had sworn to myself that I wouldn't go near him, fall for him, and I couldn't help it. He already knew how I felt, so there wasn't any reason for me to pretend to be okay like I had so many times before.

'_Shh. Donna. Donna, it's okay. Come here.'_

"He took me into his arms again like he had before the other night in his office, except this time we were on the floor of my apartment, his back up against the opposite wall I had been on. He just held me, flowers next to him on the floor, my sniffling and gasping for breath between sobs.

'_I'm --- sorry --- Josh. I'm --- so --- s --- sorry. I thought I was doing everything --- right, but I --- I --- I wasn't. And, now, I've made everything --- impossible. I'm so, so, so sorry, Josh. It's --- it's --- it's all my fault. And I want to be with you. More --- more than anything. I really, really do Josh. I do, I do, I just I wa---'_

"And then I started breaking into a sobbing fit and he had to try and get me to relax and actually, you know, breathe, because it's something I wasn't doing.

'_No. Donna. It's fine. It's not your fault. It's my fault for yelling at you about this. I should have done it differently, thought it out before hand. But, Donna, I love you. I'm so sorry I've caused you this much pain. I just want you to know that we can do this. It's not right for the two of us to live separately. I can't handle you being mad at me. I go insane, I go crazy, I just want everything to be okay.'_

'_But it can't be. The press --- the press can't find out, Josh. They'd have a field day.'_

'_Who says they're going to find out? I mean, eventually they will, but not until we're ready, C.J.'s ready, everyone's ready to deal with this effectively. We're not just plunging into this head first without any sort of plan. I've thought this through, we can do more, but it's stupid that we be at odds with each other over something we both want. I love you, and I'm willing to change. You said I needed to change, so I have. I know that we can do it, now you're second guessing yourself.'_

"I realized that he was right. We were fighting a pointless battle. It was as if we had just changed roles --- I was now the one who was paranoid, as Josh had been before. I sat up and looked at him. The expression on his face was one I had never seen before. It was just full of --- longing, desire --- full of hurt. I knew I had to agree with him.

'_Okay.'_

'_You understand what I'm saying?'_

'_Yes. And I'm sorry for being so stubborn, Josh.'_

'_You mean it? You're actually going to go along with this?'_

"I laughed.

'_Yes. Yes, I will, and I'm so sorry I delayed it.'_

"He then grabbed me in his arms again and started rocking back and forth hugging me.

'_Donna, I love you so much. I'm sorry I've been making you cry. I'm sorry I've been such an asshole.'_

"All I could do was laugh. He was doing nothing but apologize. Something you don't usually hear from Josh Lyman.

'_Josh. Stop apologizing. We were both wrong, but everything's okay now.'_

'_Yeah.'_

"We sat there for a few more minutes, until I interjected.

'_Josh, do you want to get up off the floor?'_

'_Yeah, that's probably a good idea. What are you watching?'_

"I had left the movie on pause and it had gone to the DVD screen.

'_It's a chick flick. While You Were Sleeping.'_

'_The one with the person who works with trains?'_

'_Yes, Sandra Bullock.'_

'_I know this one. Would you mind if I finished watching it with you?'_

'_You want to watch it?'_

'_I just want to be able to lie somewhere and hold you right now.'_

'_You sure you don't want to talk about us? Or do something else?'_

'_No. Not right now. Right now I just want to let everything be as it is.'_

"So, we sat on the sofa, and soon I was falling asleep. I looked behind me to see what Josh was doing.

'_It's okay, you can fall asleep.'_

'_Are you sure?'_

'_Yeah. I'm not going to leave. I'll be here when you wake up.'_

'_I love you, Josh.'_

'_I know. I love you too.'_

"And then the next morning I woke up to find Josh exactly where he had been before, holding me while he still slept. I got up, got ready for work, and then woke him up and took him home so he could get ready."

"So you're telling me that the two of you didn't have sex that night?"

Donna blushed.

"No, ma'am."

"You already professed your love for one another, and yet you hadn't slept together."

"Yeah, not exactly the textbook romance of our time."

"Well, you have had sex now, right? You don't seem like the wait until your wedding day type of girl, Donna, not to sound demeaning."

"Yes, ma'am. It happened the following evening."

"How was it?"

"Ma'am, this is slightly awkward to be tal---"

"Oh, whatever. I just want to know if it was everything your story makes it out to be? You're telling me a love story, Donna, I have to know the ending."

"Yes, it was very nice."

"That's spectacular to hear. Thank you for coming to breakfast with me, Donna. The President's version just didn't quite crack up to your analysis."

"Any time, ma'am. This was quite a treat."

"Now, get back there and work. I'll expect you to tell me some more stories later, but next time, it's going to be one large girls night. You, me, C.J., and even Margaret and Mrs. Landingham. It's going to be love story night with the ladies of the West Wing."

"Thank you, ma'am. That's quite an honor."

"Let Josh know that if he hurts you, I'll have my husband put him in jail for something."

Donna laughed.

"Thank you, ma'am, but the President has already threatened Josh. I think he knows not to screw this up."

Mrs. Bartlet stood up and extended her hand.

"Good. It was lovely to speak with you, Donna. And, keep working hard. I'm hoping that a wedding is on the way soon."

Donna shook the First Lady's already extended hand.

"There are no plans as of yet, but hopefully. Thank you again, Mrs. Bartlet."

She pushed in her chair and left walking back to the bullpen. When she got there, Josh was hovering around her desk, waiting to pounce for information.

"So, how was it?"

"Well, it was a bit strange."

Josh sat down on Donna's desk.

"Why?"

"Well, it's not every day --- or ever, for most people --- that the First Lady of the United States of America asks you about your sex life."

Josh's eyes widened.

"She asked you _what?_"

"She asked about our sex life at the very end."

"And what did you tell her?"

"Nothing, really. I just told her all the illicit details including a detailed report of that one time at the reception for the governor of Texas at the Watergate where we---"

"Oh, my God. You didn't."

"Of course I didn't, Josh!" Donna said with a laugh. "Who do you think I am?"

"I don't know. Just --- wow. Just --- what did she actually ask you?"

"She just asked when it was we first consummated our relationship."

"That's it?"

"Yes, and I told her the general date. Nothing too specific."

"Okay. Good."

Donna surveyed the area around her desk.

"Josh, have you done any work since I've been gone?"

"Not really, but Sam stopped by earlier and so I've been doing some brainstorming for him."

"On what?"

"You're going to have to pencil in a meeting at lunch."

"Why? What for?"

"It's going to be you, Sam, and me. We've gotta brainstorm ideas on how to leak Sam's non-existant relationship to the press."

"Who's the relationship with?"

"Ainsley."

And with that, all Donna could do was smile.


	10. Lunch

I dooooooon't liiiike this chapppptterrrrr.

* * *

Going to the mess for a lunch meeting of utmost importance, Sam Seaborn had decided that a location as far away as possible from the rest of the White House staffers would be best. He chose a table in the farthest possible corner, sat down, and waited for his co-conspirators to arrive, hoping that no one would come to his table and chat. Unfortunately for Sam, someone had spotted him. It didn't take long for Sam to see her, either. 

Dammit, he thought. Didn't she already eat lunch? Well, yeah, she did, but she's probably here getting a cookie. Or a cupcake. Peach. Plum. Fresca. The woman's powerful; she did get them to start carrying that.

Maybe if I just pretend not to see her.

He reached for his lap top, pulling up the screen and pretending to look busy. Too late, she had him in her tractor beam, and was definitely coming to say hi.

"Hey, Sam!"

"Oh, hi Ainsley. I thought you had a meeting scheduled for lunch today." Sam said reluctantly.

"Yes, but I was still hungry." She raised up her left hand and waved a cookie in front of his face. "I didn't have a chance to get desert."

"A-ha." He furiously typed away, doing absolutely nothing.

"What are you working on," she asked, pulling out the seat next to him and sitting down.

"Oh, uh --- just some remarks for the President on --- uh, the economic growth in the last quarter."

"Didn't you write those last week?"

"Yeah, but they needed some revisions."

"Did the President tell you that?"

"No."

"Leo? Toby?"

"Nope."

"So, you're just editing these for your own, twisted, obsessive-compulsive reasons?"

Sam pushed down the computer screen.

"Shouldn't you be prosecuting someone or something?"

"Yes, but I like seeing you and getting the opportunity to torture you. What are you doing down here, anyway?"

"I have a lunch."

"With whom?"

"Josh and Donna."

"I see."

"Yes."

"Well, I don't want to keep you. Tell them I say hello, will you?"

"Absolutely. Oh, and, enjoy your cookie."

"I will," Ainsley said as she walked off. Right as she went through the door, Josh and Donna walked in, taking a second to find where Sam was sitting.

"Were you just sitting with Ainsley?" Josh asked.

"Yeah."

"And you asked her out earlier, right?"

Silence.

"Donna, how did your meeting with Mrs. Bartlet go?"

Before Donna could get a word out, Josh cut her off.

"Don't change the subject! What happened?"

"Well," Sam began, "I went down there, tripping on the stairs right outside her office, and, well, I --- chickened out."

"Sam!" Donna squealed.

"What do you want from me? She was working and started grilling me on something I didn't --- and should have --- known about. I did what any normal person would have done."

"And what was that?"

"I pretended to ask if she knew what the weather was supposed to be like over the next few days."

Josh rolled his eyes.

"The _weather_, Sam?"

"Well, it took you a very long time to ask Donna out!"

"Yeah, but I didn't ask her whether or not it was going to be sunny the next day when I can just call up a government agency."

"I beg to differ," Donna said, scolding.

"Oh, whatever, Mary Sunshine. You're my assistant, it isn't out of line when I ask you, because I am expecting you to get the information for me, as it is what I pay you for."

"Yes, but the love is free." She countered.

"Do you guys want to actually sit down?" Sam interrupted.

In the midst of all the discussion, the two had not actually taken a seat. They plopped down next to each other, across the table from Sam, ready to scheme.

"So, what can we do for you?" Donna asked.

"Well, we really can't do anything yet," replied Josh, "because Sam didn't follow through with step number one."

"Which is…"

"Actually asking Ainsley out on a date."

"A good first step. Unless of course you just want to go confess your undying love for her and see what happens."

"It's a bold gesture."

"It's called Josh-style."

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with my style!"

"I never said that."

"Yeah, but you implied it."

"Uh, can we get back to the subject at hand?" Sam said.

"Right. So, you want to know how Josh and I choreographed our relationship leak to the press."

"Yes."

"Well, C.J. and I had a girls night and I told her it then."

"Was she upset?"

"No, not really. Happy, if anything. Everyone's been like that, right?"

"Right," Josh said. "But I don't think anyone beats my mother's reaction."

"So," Sam said hesitantly, "there really wasn't any master planning involved? Unless of course you two are the ones that planted the sex scandal. Then you're really going to need to help me."

"Nope. Sheer luck." Donna said.

"Then why are we having this meeting?"

"Hey," Josh said, "you came into my office."

"Yeah, but I thought there'd be some actual strategy involved in my dating Ainsley."

"Well, there could be strategy if you asked her out first."

"Yes. I know that. I just don't know where to go, what we should do."

"We already talked about this. Just take her to dinner."

Sam shifted himself in his chair, and turned his head to the side.

"Yeah, but I was thinking that maybe I could do something a little more --- special. You know, try to be romantic, memorable; some date she'd remember as being different and exciting.

"But, nothing too childish. I don't want to take her to an amusement park or anything like that. It's cute, but---"

"You're afraid of the roller coasters."

"Yeah, that, and the fact that it's just so… I don't know, high school-esque."

"I mentioned poetry and the Potomac earlier."

"But you weren't serious."

"No, I wasn't."

"So, what do you have? Donna, do you want to weigh in on this situation?"

Donna looked thoughtful.

"Take her dancing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's old fashioned and adorable."

"Well, okay, but I can't dance very well."

"It's the gesture that counts."

"Josh, what do you think?"

"I like it."

"But then what do I do if we start actually, you know, dating?"

"Go to C.J. at the opportune moment. Right, Donna?"

"Yep."

"So this meeting was a complete waste of time?"

"Yeah," Josh and Donna replied in unison.

"Well, thank you guys anyway. I just need to actually do it."

"Uh-huh," agreed Josh.

The three stopped speaking for a moment, until Donna broke the silence with,

"So, what are you going to name your kids?"

"What?"

"What are you and Ainsley going to name your kids?"

Sam looked dumbfounded. Was she joking? Surely she was.

"I don't know. Do you and Josh have names for your kids?"

"John Josiah if it's a boy, Elizabeth Joan if it's a girl, but we're calling her Bettina."

"Why Bettina?"

"It's Italian, much like Donnatella."

"I can't believe you two already have names picked out. Donna you're not---"

"Pregnant? No. We've got more names, right Josh?"

"Yeah, we've got a lot."

"When did you decide on them?"

"Eh, I don't know. One night when I went over to Donna's place after work."

"And you just decided to name your kids?"

"It was fun. I had a baby name book lying around and so Josh and I made a list."

"So you both obviously know that you want to be together forever."

The two looked at each other, and Josh grabbed Donna's hand. Looking at her he said,

"Yes. Donna knows it. I know it. I'm just waiting for the right time to propose."

Sam sighed.

"I feel like that about Ainsley sometimes."

"What do you mean?" Donna asked, breaking her glance from Josh.

"Well, I know that if we were ever given the chance to get together and date, that we'd be together forever. There's just something there. We are both lawyers, same political arena, and yet we debate and disagree over some things because she's a straight Republican from North Carolina and I'm a straight Democrat from California.

"I fell in love with Lisa and I proposed, and I thought everything was perfect there. But, now, obviously, I know it wasn't, and I think in the back of my mind back then I thought that something was wrong. I don't know whether or not it's true, but I think crazy things about love. I mean, here I am, having never been on a date with Ainsley, and I'm objectionably head over heels in love.

"But, I think, sometimes, that she feels the same way about me and knows that I want to marry her and live in the suburbs and raise a family. But it's subtle, because dating a co-worker is somewhat frowned upon. But, I'm crazy about her, and I want her to know that. I want to do something that makes me happy. I want to make her happy, too. You know how that feels?"

"Aw, Sam!"

"Yes, yes, yes," he blushed, "but, Donna, don't go spreading that around to all the assistants, please. And you, Josh," Sam said, pointing a finger at him, "I know you've said stuff like that about Donna before, so don't even try to tell Toby. Or anyone else, for that matter."

"I won't," Josh smiled.

"So, do you guys want to actually get food?" Sam asked, standing up. "It is a lunch meeting, you know."

"Yeah, that could be a good idea."


	11. Late Night

Okay, I didn't edit this, so excuse all the stupid little mistakes.

I'd like to thank: CAIA, KURSK, MISS JASADIN, SOOZY87, and WWFAN25 for reviewing my last chapter. I appreciate it so much.

And, also, I'd like to give a lovely little shout-out toeveryone who has reviewed this story, ever. You all are amazing for taking the time out to tell me whether or not this thing sucks:)

* * *

This was quite a treat, since very rarely did it happen.

Very, very rarely.

Very rarely did Donna ever walk into Josh's apartment --- or her own, for that matter --- and find Josh in bed, asleep. Usually it was the other way around, with Donna leaving earlier than he was, going home, and getting into bed. More often than not they left together, but there were those days where she just couldn't stand to be at work for one more second.

But tonight was different. Tonight was a night where she came wandering in the door at 3:45, and Josh was sound asleep.

She hadn't been out partying, going astray, or doing any work. In fact, she was at home watching TV with Josh when her cell phone rang.

"_Whose phone is that?" _Josh asked. _"Yours or mine?"_

Neither of them moved. Today had been a pretty long day, and even the thought of getting off the sofa was excruciating.

"_Mine." _Donna groaned, but didn't budge. The phone rung two more times.

"_Are you going to get that?"_

"_No."_

"_Why not?"_

"_It's probably just someone calling for you because they couldn't manage to reach you at the office, or on your pager, or on your battery-dead cell phone. So, my cell is next in the line of succession."_

"_That still doesn't rationalize my getting it."_

"_Jooooooooosh. I don't want to move."_

"_Neither do I."_

"_Well, one of us ought to be adult."_

"_I can tell you right now it's not going to be me. No one's ever called me adult in my life. I'm more juve---"_

"_OKAY, enough, enough," _Donna said, interrupting his long rant and getting up to walk over to her purse and pull out her phone. She flipped it open without looking at the caller identification.

"_Donna Moss," _she sighed into the phone, lifting one arm above her head to stretch.

"_Oh, hey Ainsley."_

Josh immediately sat up and turned his attention to Donna, staring at her. She reciprocated his glance with one that plainly said Yes, I don't know what's up either.

"_Oh, really? Okay. No, no, that's fine Ainsley. Yeah, I'm happy to. No, you're not interrupting anything. No, you really aren't. Josh'll forgive you. You're fine. The whole thing's alright, and I'll be there in fifteen minutes. Yes. Just don't --- I don't know, don't drink anything. Don't mess up your thought process or anything like that. Just stay calm. I'm gonna be there in a little while, okay? Okay, see you soon."_

Josh was concerned. Ainsley and Sam were supposed to go out on a date that night --- had something happened to Sam? Ainsley? Did the date just go so totally, totally wrong and crush both of their dreams for a life together, house in the suburbs, and their two children, presumably having the names Joshua and Donnatella, since their namesakes had their parents get together?

"_What happened?"_ He asked.

"_Ainsley's --- she's ---" _Donna was having some trouble articulating the situation at hand. _"Ainsley's wigging out, Josh."_

"_She's what?"_

"_She's wigging out."_

"_Over what?"_

"_Her date with Sam."_

"_What, did it go really badly?"_

"_I'm… not quite sure."_

"_You're not quite sure?"_

"_I think --- I think it went well. She wasn't speaking coherent English."_

"_So you're going over there?"_

"_Yeah. She needs to talk to someone, or else she's going to go insane."_

"_Should I call Sam?"_

"_Yes, but he's probably going to try to call you anyway."_

"_But my phone's not working."_

"_Yeah, but Sam will follow the order of succession again, but bypass my cell phone because he wants to have a man to man chat without any interference of women."_

"_What's next in the order?"_

"_My land line phone."_

"_How is it that you have devised a monarchy for phone calls?"_

"_I don't know. It's a good allusion."_

Donna walked over to the door to throw on her coat and slip into her shoes.

"_I'm not sure when I'm going to be back, so don't wait up for me. Seriously. Sleep. It's good for you."_

"_Okay."_

She grabbed her keys, shut the door, locked it, and started off on her way. Donna couldn't begin to fathom what had made Ainsley act the way she was acting.

Actually, no, she could. The first time she and Josh had actually gone out on a date --- well, Donna freaked out. It had gone perfectly and was simply magical; sweet, innocent, and much like a regular first date should be, albeit they had already had sex. But, that night, it was a simple kiss goodnight at the doorstep, and a See you tomorrow. Then, upon entering her house, Donna broke out into a little happy dance, and left a message on her sister's answering machine, saying that what they referred to as "the thing that we always talk about but really cannot talk about because it's more scandalous than we could ever believe" had happened.

So, it really wasn't that far off that Ainsley would call Donna and tell her the news. Especially when it was because of Donna --- and Josh --- that Sam had asked Ainsley out. Plus, Ainsley had to keep the news of their dating somewhat under wraps. If she called any of her other, well, _Republican _friends, chaos and mass hysteria would ensue. C.J. would be getting hammered at the podium, the administration trashed, and everything that Josh and Donna had accomplished with their relationship would disappear in the blink of an eye.

So, yeah, it was definitely better that Ainsley had called Donna at 2:00 in the morning. It was also a good thing that Josh was swamped with work. On a normal, less tiring night, the two would probably be engaged in a certain activity at that hour, or sleeping after doing that certain activity.

Donna walked over to where Josh's car was parked and got in. It was, quite literally, a two minute drive to Ainsley's apartment, but who in their right mind was actually going to walk down the street at 2:00 AM when they could be safe in a nice car? Plus, Donna didn't get to drive it much. It was a fairly special event.

The streets were actually pretty deserted. Donna figured as much, as very few people stayed up as late as she and the rest of her co-workers did on a week night. It seemed almost eerie to have her neighborhood be this quiet, but the lack of traffic was certainly not a turn off. In record time, she found a parking spot (a miracle in itself), walked to Ainsley's apartment building, and rang the buzzer.

"_Hello?" _Ainsley said, answering Donna's ring.

"_It's Donna. Can you let me in?"_

Instead of a reply, the door was buzzed, and Donna walked into the foyer.

Ainsley's apartment building was very nice. It was no where near as pretty as Josh's townhouse, but it had its charm. Compared to Donna's first apartment in D.C. with her two roommates, Ainsley's building was a palace. In comparison to her current living environment, it probably surpassed it by a small margin. The elevator was definitely a nice thing.

Donna pressed the button, and the doors opened instantly. Sam must have been the last person in the elevator, she thought. Otherwise, it would probably be stuck on Ainsley's floor. Donna extended her hand and punched the button for the seventh floor. It was late night gallivants like these that made Donna really wish her own building had an elevator. Well, that, and the fact that they can be wonderful places to make out. She had some experience with that.

The doors opened, and she walked the twenty feet down the hallway to Ainsley's door and knocked quietly. She was sure that the rest of the residents were probably sleeping, and there was no need to wake people up.

She heard Ainsley's footsteps approaching the door, and the door was opened quickly, and Donna was pulled inside.

"_Hi," _Ainsley giggled.

"_Um, hi. Why did you pull me in here?"_

"_I didn't want to wake up the neighbors. The people next door, they're this really annoying old couple that honestly wakes up with the slightest amount of noise. I couldn't risk you making them get upset outside the apartment when I might just scream for joy in here!"_

Donna's eyebrows were raised to the ceiling. What the hell was going on?

"_Ainsley, have you had anything to drink?"_

"_No! No," _Ainsley replied, defending herself, _"but I did have some wine at dinner. But, no, no, Donna I'm not drunk on alcohol. I'm drunk on something else."_

Donna knew what was coming next.

"_Oh, my God, no, don't say it."_

"_Yes. Yes, it's true. I am drunk on something far more potent than any kind of wine. I am drunk on---"_

"_Ainsley, don't say it!"_

"_I'm drunk on love! Love, Donna! I'm drunk on it. I've tasted its sweet, sweet nectar, and I'm never going to stop! And you know who it is that has given me this wine?"_

"_Sam."_

"_Yes! Sam! And, he probably got some help from the chardonnay that was at the restaurant, but, I'm mostly drunk on love, Donna! Wine could not produce such an effect!"_

"_Ainsley, you know you sound absolutely ridiculous, don't you?"_

"_But whatever could love be ridiculed over? It is the most amazing feeling in the whole world. It is the reason for existence! Without love of human kind and nature and laws and NASCAR and beer and life nothing could ever be accomplished!"_

"_Yes. Yes, I do know that love is important."_

"_And, I know I'm drunk, but I've never felt so enlightened in my entire life! And, that's a pretty big deal, you know. I have a law degree from Harvard. I've learned a lot. I've been enlightened on many subjects. But, tonight, tonight I have learned so much more than any school has ever been able to teach me!"_

"_So, the date went well?"_

Ainsley grabbed Donna's hand and ran over to the sofa with her. Donna had been standing in the hallway watching Ainsley dance around explaining the importance of love, and the two had not moved. Now, Ainsley grabbed her hand, and ran into her living room, jumping on to the sofa and crossing her legs, sitting Indian style.

"_Donna, have you ever been DANCING?"_

"_Oh, my God, this is like a bad dream from junior high," _Donna muttered under her breath.

"_What?"_

"_Oh, yeah, I've been dancing before," _Donna recovered.

"_No, I mean, have you ever been DANCING?"_

"_What's DANCING?"_

"_When a boy sweeps you off your feet dancing at a beautiful Washington, D.C. restaurant."_

"_Ah, well, I have been to a few Inaugural Balls that were pretty nice."_

"_That's right, they have a lot of them, don't they?"_

"_Yeah, and Josh and I went to five back in the day."_

"_Well, I'm sure those were beautiful, but I got taken DANCING tonight!"_

"_Sam can dance?"_

"_Yes. Now, I know what you're thinking, because, Sam's not known for his coordination, but, Donna, let me tell you, that boy can dance."_

"_Good to know."_

"_Haven't you ever danced with him?"_

"_Once or twice, but I really wasn't paying too much attention."_

"_That's right. At all those formal affairs, it was okay for you and Josh to dance cheek to cheek."_

Donna blushed. Ainsley had hit it right on the head.

"_Yes, but now we can dance whenever and wherever we want to."_

"_And that's so good!"_

"_Yeah, it is," _Donna smiled.

"_And you know why else it's good, Donna?"_

"_Why, Ainsley?"_

"_Because now Sam and I can dance at places together! And we can date, and we can get married, and we can buy a mini-van and a house in the suburbs and have three beautiful children and live happily ever after!"_

Ainsley threw herself back against the sofa. Donna sat and stared at her. It was borderline hilarious to see Ainsley a little bit intoxicated and professing her undying love for Sam.

"_So, Ains, you okay?"_

She sighed. _"What?"_

"_I asked if you were all right. If I could go back home now."_

"_Well… no. I need to sit with you and talk to you some more. Because, I know that I have to get all my emotions out right now, or else I'll end up telling someone and breaking it before it's supposed to be known and then the cat will be out of the bag and we'll all be screwed. Is that okay? I'm really sorry to do this to you, Donna. But, you're the only one that can know right now."_

Donna smiled. Ainsley was right, and, she could last listening to her a little bit longer. Donna loved Ainsley and knew that she had to be there for her, as Ainsley had been when it was Donna having a problem with Josh.

"_It's absolutely fine. Let's talk," _Donna said. _"For starters, how are you going to break it to your dad that you're dating a Democrat?"_

---

The two had talked for a while longer, laughing and chatting away about Sam and Josh and life in general. Around twenty minutes to four, Ainsley had finally decided that it was time to let Donna leave, seeing as she had to wake up in about an hour.

And, so, Donna left and came home to see Josh asleep in bed, with CNN on. Clearly he had been trying to stay awake, even though she had told him to sleep. Sweet, but stupid.

She went into the bathroom and got all ready for bed, then walked out and turned off the TV. Josh stirred a little bit, but went on sleeping. Then Donna hopped in bed and snuggled up next to him. A warm, sleepy Josh was always a nice thing.

"Hi," she said, kissing him on the cheek.

He looked pretty confused, and rolled over to check the time.

"You're just getting back _now_?" He said, rolling over on to his back and hugging her.

"Yeah. Ainsley had a lot to talk about."

"I'd say. What was wrong?"

"Nothing. She was a little bit drunk and a bit too excited."

"A-ha," Josh smiled, "our plan is working."

"Yes," she laughed. "Have you spoken with Sam?"

"No. He didn't call."

"Hm. That's puzzling."

"Isn't it?"

"Yeah, but I'm sure he'll call you first thing in the morning."

"Yeah. Right now you and I could definitely use some sleep."

"Yes," Donna said, snuggling up tighter to Josh. "Good night."

"I love you," he said, kissing the top of her head.

---

They drifted off to sleep for fifteen minutes.

Then the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Josh? It's Sam."


	12. Mini Chapter: Conversation

I don't know why, but I felt like writing this little mini-chapter. Obviously, this is the conversation between Sam and Josh that was started in the last chapter.

Just to warn you, it is UNBELIEVABLY sappy.

* * *

"Sam? What the hell are you doing? It's not even 4:15," Josh whispered into the phone, trying not wake Donna. 

"I know, I'm sorry. It's just that ---"

Sam was speechless.

"Josh, I had the most amazing date with Ainsley."

"I heard. Donna got called around 2:00 and went over to see her. This actually leads into a good question," he said, sitting up in the bed, "why the hell are you calling me now?"

"I went for a jog."

"A jog? In the wee hours of the morning?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because I felt invigorated."

"Why?"

"Because I had an amazing date with the woman I am in love with and, most certainly, Josh, will marry."

"That's great, Sam, but can I go back to sleep?"

There was no response from Sam. Josh waited again until asking,

"Sam?"

"Josh, did you feel this way?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did you feel this way about Donna?"

"You mean did I feel invigorated and absolutely in love?"

"Yeah."

"Yes. I did. I still do. Thing about a feeling like that Sam, is that it never goes away. Even when you're arguing with her over something stupid, or you're having a major fight. It always feels the same way."

"But, what if, God forbid, you fall out of love? Wouldn't that just be crushing?"

"What are you saying? I don't think I fully understand."

"I'm saying, what if right now you're in love with the woman, but, then, ten years from now, you realize that you've grown apart and that it's not the same. Wouldn't it just make more sense to never experience it at all?"

"No. Never. I'll never forget the feeling. Plus, Sam, you've already felt it."

"But, what if it stops?"

"I don't know, but it's better to think of forever. You sound like Toby, Sam."

Sam laughed. It was true. He was approaching this with a completely glass half-empty view.

"I just worry about what I'll do."

"Why? Because of your dad?"

"Yeah. And, he and my mom weren't together a great amount of time before he strayed."

"So, why would you do it?"

"I don't know. Like father, like son, I suppose."

"You're different than him, Sam. I think your dad's great, but he did screw up. You're not going to do that, you know how hurt your mom was, you know how hurt you were. You wouldn't blow it."

"I'm just worried about losing this feeling. It's incredible, Josh."

"Tell me about it. I'm sitting here holding Donna while she sleeps. She's beautiful, Sam. I have her, and you don't even know how lucky I am."

"No, I do. A little bit. I have Ainsley now."

"Aren't these women amazing? They put up with us, love us, and are brilliant."

"They are."

The two paused.

"I'm sorry I called you this late, Josh."

"No, it's fine. I just was worried about waking up Donna."

"But, everything's fine?"

"Yeah, she's still asleep."

"We'll talk later?"

"Yeah. Your office. I'll bring bagels to celebrate."

"Sounds about right. Thanks, Josh."

"No problem."

Josh hung up the phone and looked down at Donna who had stayed asleep throughout the whole ordeal.

"You're beautiful, Donna," he whispered, before pulling her closer to him and closing his eyes to fall asleep.

Donna blinked. She didn't know it was possible to start to cry with one's eyes closed. Josh had tried to keep quiet while on the phone, but he had still woken her up. And, wow, was Donna certainly glad he had. Though he thought he was the luckiest guy alive to have such a wonderful person that loved him, she knew he ought to look in the mirror and evaluate himself. Donna was pretty lucky, too.


	13. Material Found

And after 21 days of not updating...

I bring you this. Which isn't too good. But, I'm thinking of writing something actually, you know, worthwhile in the next chapter. Oh well. :)

* * *

"Did you hear about Sam?" C.J. asked as she sat down on the sofa in Toby's office. 

Without looking up from what he was staring at, Toby grumbled out,

"Did I hear _what _about Sam?"

"He went running."

Toby wasn't impressed.

"Wow, running," he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Sam. Running."

"Yes, I heard you."

"But you don't know where he was running."

"Well, he does belong to a gym, so I'm going to put my money on that."

How was C.J. missing the classic I Don't Care At All Signs?

"Nope. He ran outside."

"Imagine that."

"At night."

"Great."

"In the middle of the night, Toby!"

_How_ was she not catching the signals!

"C.J., I really don't care."

"But he went running around in the middle of the night!"

"And therefore it's a big gossip story because he was stupid and probably could have gotten mugged? Because, that is what it seems like it is, and, in that case, I'd tell Margaret, not me."

"No, that's not the point."

"We don't care about Sam being potentially mugged?"

"No."

"Okay."

C.J. shifted on Toby's couch. The mission of telling Toby about Sam and Ainsley was getting far too difficult.

"Don't you want to know _why_ Sam was running in the middle of the night?"

"Not really."

"Toby!"

"What?"

"Can't you at least feign interest?"

"You asked me if I cared and I answered you honestly. I have wor---"

"HE went running because," C.J. interrupted, "he went out on a date with Ainsley last night and, was so --- enraptured, and --- excited, and --- lots of other things like that, that he went running at two o'clock in the morning." She had no choice but to interrupt him and get all the basic facts out. Toby could go five thousand rounds before he'd pretend to care to get her out of the room.

Suddenly, the papers Toby had been shuffling stopped moving. His hands stopped. Slowly, he lifted his head.

"Sam went out on a date with Ainsley?"

Score: C.J., one, Toby, zero.

"Yes!"

He scratched his head. "That's interesting."

"I know, isn't it great?" C.J.'s face lit up with a 100-watt smile.

"I didn't say it was great, I said it was interesting."

"Oh, Toby."

"What?"

"It _is _great. You know how much both of them liked each other."

"Reluctantly. I could have survived without the knowledge."

"Oh, come on."

"Yeah, I know about their mutual, hidden affection," Toby started, "but, it's just that I just ---" He looked puzzled. "Sam didn't screw up?"

"No! They were both thrilled!"

"Really, he didn't, you know, trip over something or anything like that?"

"No."

"Did you talk to Ainsley?"

"No, but Donna did."

"And she said that Ainsley was happy?"

"Yes. Donna got a call from her at two."

"In the morning?"

"Yes, Toby."

"Wow."

"I know, isn't it just such a wow situation?"

"Yeah, Josh and Donna never get to sleep anymore."

C.J.'s face dropped. Men. They can never understand the beauty of romance.

"Toby, I feel as though you're not fully understanding the importance of the situation," she said delicately.

"No, I'm really not."

"But why? You seemed like you were getting into it a little bit all of thirty seconds ago. Now what?"

"Well, right now there's nothing I can use to make fun of Sam."

A-ha. His motives exposed.

"Hmm. There has to be a nickname in there somewhere. Or at least a small something."

"No," Toby said, "so far I'm getting the vibe that it was a _win _for Sam."

"Running. Running, running, running. Hm. Uh, we could call him Gail."

"Gail?"

"Gail Deavers? The Olympian with the really long fingernails?"

"Your fish is named Gail."

"Damn," C.J. said, snapping her fingers, "and I thought we were getting somewhere."

"Yeah."

They paused for a minute as Toby started scribbling notes on to his big yellow pad.

"Hey, what about Flo-Jo?"

"No. I'm vetoing any other names of Olympians you could have for Sam, C.J."

"But why? It could work. You know, we go early to senior staff this morning, Sam walks in, we say 'Hey Flo-Jo', Sam gets all confused or embarrassed, Leo asks why we're calling Sam Flo-Jo, and then we can ridicule Sam for his late night running habits."

"Yeah, but then he explains how he went out on a date with Ainsley and then Leo's either happy and proud --- happy that Sam's finally getting together with her, and happy that Mallory is no longer in danger --- or irate that we have to deal with more staff dating one another."

"Well, all the worries about it getting out to the press should be my biggest concern. It's my job, and I say what the hell, it's great."

"You're missing the point though, C.J., it's not funny. It's cute. All the assistants will be doting on Sam, not teasing him."

"And your goal in life is to have Sam harassed by junior staffers?"

"For a bit of office entertainment, yes."

"But isn't it distracting for him?"

"Never when he has something major to write."

"And right now?"

"We're not writing anything big."

C.J. sighed. "Well, Toby, I love a good embarrassing Sam story as much as the next guy, but I don't think we're going to find any out of this thing."

"Yeah."

She looked at her watch and said,

"'Kay, well, want to go down to the mess and get something before senior staff?"

"Alright."

The two walked out of Toby's office and stopped as they saw Sam talking to Ainsley on the other side of the bullpen. As the first sighting of the two together as a couple, both Toby and C.J. paid close attention to the way they behaved with one another. Ainsley seemed to be smiling and laughing at something Sam said, reached out to touch his hand, and then walked off. Sam stood there, watching her go, and then started to walk backwards. After his third step, not realizing where he was walking, the back of his foot hit the file cabinet nearby. C.J. gasped and Ginger squealed as Sam Seaborn went tumbling into Ginger and papers flew into the sky.

Silence engulfed the area, with everyone in the bullpen turning to look at the disaster.

"Uh, will that work for your teasing material?" C.J. asked.

"Yeah. That'll do," Toby said, walking off to the mess with C.J. standing with her jaw hanging down before a very embarrassed Sam jumped up and everyone erupted in laughter.


	14. He's Bored

Oh. Hey there. I've been neglecting this story because:

A. I couldn't think of anything to write about.

B. Just for the record, this chapter really serves no purpose.

and, C. I started writing a new story and have been giving far more attention to that one. It's basically an epic story that I don't think will be too popular, so I'm writing it all and then posting one chapter per day until it's done. Because, I don't think I could really handle writing a chapter, having zero reviews and like five hits, and then waiting a few weeks to post another which yields the same results. It's untitled as of yet (and will hopefully have a better title than this silly thing), but I think I'll categorize it as General/Drama, but there is romance involved, too. Or, there will be. Later. I think. Or, well, I'm planning on it...

ANYWAY, here's chapter fourteen, in which nothing really happens. I wrote the first, I think, four sentences on a Treo mobile phone when I was trapped in a car and the idea came to me, so that's why it involves PDAs. Or, wait, isn't that personal display of affection? Whatever, I don't know my acronyms, or abbreviations rather.

SORRY FOR THE LONG NOTE!

* * *

_I will die here. I will die here, between Sam and Toby, and never get to say my final farewell to Donna. They'll pull me out of here on a gurney, never to be heard from again._

It was, to put it quite simply, the longest and most mind numbingly boring meeting of Josh Lyman's adult life, and there was no end in sight.

It wasn't that Josh didn't care about education; he honestly did. He agreed with Sam that education was the silver bullet and that schools should be palaces --- he just didn't enjoy hearing the representatives of the Democratic caucus from Montana drone on and on and on and on and on and on.

They were just so boring!

Josh bounced his pencil lightly on his pad of paper. _What I wouldn't give for a national crisis_, he thought. _What I wouldn't give for anything that got me out of this room!_

The fact of the matter was that Josh was going to die in this meeting and it needed to be reiterated. Now, he wasn't sure if anyone had seriously died of boredom, but he was thinking that it must have aided in death at one point or another. _Suicide, brought on by boredom._ It sounded very legal, and, well, sounded nice, until of course he realized that stabbing himself in the neck with his number two pencil did not necessarily ensure death. And that if he died right then, he'd never kiss Donna ever again.

And we're back to the thought of the gurney.

_Maybe we've been secretly brought into a prison. _

The room they were in had no windows whatsoever. Josh was fairly sure that they had, in fact, been brought down into the basement. And, it wasn't as if they were on government property anymore. They were in an office building. Or, maybe it was just an "office building". Maybe it was really an embassy of some weird, small country who wanted to cripple the United States and therefore decided to capture its White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Communications Director, and Deputy Communications Director. Yeah, it really didn't make sense to Josh, either, but, if they were in an embassy, or, a consulate, or whatever, Sam, Toby, and Josh were no longer on American soil. They were captives. Prisoners of the War Against Low Standardized Test Scores. _No, not Standardized Test Scores. Not really. Not if they're from some small, corrupt country._

_But, _Josh continued to think, _what if we really have been taken hostage and this meeting is all a clever rouse? What if we're about to be executed, broadcasted all over the internet by these --- really white, folksy, Montananian-looking people. Who have mid-western accents and made a reference to something only cowboys and farmers and those sorts of people know about._

_Maybe they're just very well-trained. They're actors. They've studied the stereotypical American, especially those in Montana, and they're really from the principality of Ustulakazaberstan. Some place like that. Like the Confederated States of Micronesia or whatever. Somewhere no one outside of the government has every heard about. Except for geography freaks. Or, Cartographers for Social Equality But, they qualify for the geography freak category._

Josh sat back in his chair, weighing the situation at hand. They could indeed be clever masqueraders, but they were clever masqueraders who had studied a lot. Josh hadn't really been paying attention for the last eighteen hours they'd been locked in there, but at least at the beginning that had been making reasonable complaints and scholarly suggestions. Sam also seemed to be still chatting with them. And Toby. So, if they really were trying to kidnap the three of the White House's senior staffers --- well, they had gone through an unreasonable amount of trouble. _So, fine, maybe they aren't really trained assassins, or actors, or puppets in an act to torture me to find government secrets and hold for ransom, but I can still pretend they are._

_Now, what's the best route for escape?_

Josh analyzed the room. No windows, of course, but there was what resembled a ventilation system outlet in the ceiling. And of course, the door, the most obvious exit. It could quite possibly be guarded by thugs armed with glocks, or AK-47s, or some other kind of weapon --- but, even if they could get past the guards, Josh had no idea how they had gotten down there. Maybe they knocked him out. It must have been an elevator. But, how exactly low down inside the building were they? Josh didn't remember seeing _anyone _else down here. Not even a bathroom.

_That's it! The bathroom! I can ask to run to the bathroom --- if they refuse, then the fighting for freedom can begin. Sam, Toby, and I can take these guys. They're weaklings, look at them!_

There were four men from "Montana" in the room. One looked to be pushing eighty, two others in their mid-fifties, and one spry looking thirty-something: Josh would be taking him.

He started to reevaluate. _Nah, maybe I won't take the young looking guy_, he thought, tipping his head to the side staring at the thirty-something, then switching to the grandfatherly one._ Pops may be small, but I can't be mislead by his diminutive size. The guy's probably got a black belt, being a trained assassin and all. _

The difference in numbers was a slight problem; the ratio of four to three was not in their favor, but they had the power of the President on their side.

_Oh, who am I kidding? It's two Jewish guys and a Princeton Tiger, even though Sam has threatened to bust someone like a piñata in the past. … Yeah, we've got no chance._

Josh sighed at his revelation, apparently rather audibly as Sam turned to look at him.

"Something you want to add, Josh?"

His eyes opened widely as he stuttered for a response.

"Oh, uh, no. I was just --- I was just releasing some tension."

"Okay," Sam replied with an air of skepticism as he returned back to conversing with the "representatives".

Suddenly, Josh felt something vibrating in his pocket. _At the very least, I have cell reception down here in this labyrinth. _He pulled his PDA and unlocked the screen. _Damn_. He had only received a text message.

He tapped the screen and opened the message, which read:

How's it going?

Josh scrolled down to the sender label. From: Donna.

He furiously hit reply and began to type out his message:

Bored nearly to death. Think I've been captured. Weird building. No windows. Basement.

_Finally. Some hope of communication with the outside!_

He hit send and began to wait somewhat impatiently. It was easy typing on a PDA with its mini-keyboard, so he expected a fast reply. He held the phone in his hand, wondering how Toby hadn't dropped dead yet. Sam was a bit more patient out of the three. And, plus, he was crazy-go-nuts about education.

_Vibration!_

Josh quickly flipped the phone over in his hand and tapped the screen again. At over a hundred-words per minute on the computer, Donna had some speed on her Treo. The new communiqué read:

You're hysterical. Building is official MT Dem Caucus headquarters. You're in basement because they have to remove asbestos in other parts of building.

_Asbestos! Oh, she's going to hear about that:_

Great. So now I'll die from inhaling that stuff.

_Why couldn't we just have had this meeting in the Roosevelt Room?_

He added that thought to the message and hit send again. He looked up, to see if anyone had noticed his texting. No one had.

A minute and a half passed:

The WH has asbestos, too. You're not going to die. It's snowing outside.

Josh smiled. Donna loved when it snowed in Washington. Probably because it reminded her of the frozen tundra that is Wisconsin, but also because it was pretty, and she and Josh would always go for walks and look at the monuments covered in majestic white fluff.

He replied with a promise:

We'll go for a walk once I'm released in 8-10 months.

A minute later:

Ha ha. Stop texting. Fix education. Love you.

He put the phone back in his pocket and tried to concentrate. After a minute he starting yelling inside his head. The boredom was too much. _For the love of God, _he yelled, _could these people be any more boring! _

Sneakily stealing a glance at Toby, he noticed he, too, had finally begun to space out. Sam was still arguing points about government funding and how the Bartlet Administration was doing much better than any Republicans in Congress, to which the caucus replied that they already knew, and then, it happened.

Silence.

Was the meeting wrapping up?

Was it?

Was it!

Time to interject.

"So, we had enough chatting for one day?" Josh asked, a smirk on his face.

"I don't know, Josh," the old guy said. "You've barely said a word this entire time. What do you think?"

"Basically, sir, I agree with Sam on all aspects. Sam here's our point-man on education, and he knows what he's talking about. If you want President Bartlet's strategy for improving schools in this country look no further than this guy here."

Josh slapped Sam's shoulder as Sam and Toby both turned and stared at him. Josh's smirk began to change into a serious face as he realized that both his friends were wondering What the hell was going on.

"But, no, really sir," Josh continued, clearing his throat, transferring into his business visage, "Sam's got a comprehensive grip on the matter, and if you want to get your ideas out in a clearer medium, send a report my way and I'll personally look at it."

The old guy looked as if he was pondering it for a minute, then stood up, extending his arm across the table to Josh.

"Okay, Mr. Lyman, you have yourself a deal."

"Thank you sir," Josh replied, taking the man's hand and shaking it, as the rest of the men in the room stood and did the same with one another.

Josh threw on his coat with lightening speed, grabbed his things, threw them in his backpack and ran towards the door, holding it open for his constituents.

"Thanks again," he said to the caucus before the door closed, and stood in the hallway, the door not guarded by guards, and with some people walking about the hallway normally. Sam and Toby stared at him.

"What?" He asked innocently. "Why are you staring?"

"I'm glad to know you've adopted every one of Sam's ideals on education," Toby replied.

"Oh, come on, guys," Josh said, his voice going up a little bit higher than usual. "I made us all unified behind the President's Education Reform Bill. We looked like a solid group with one mind, one goal."

"And yet you did it with so few words," Sam quipped.

"Hey! In some cases, simpler is better!" Josh said defensively. "And plus, these guys are from Montana. Montana, where wordiness is not a turn on. Where plainspoken is better."

"These are Democrats, Josh, not Republicans," reminded Toby.

"Yeah, but still, Democrats from Montana!" Josh's voice had climbed higher into the stratosphere as he tried desperately to escape Sam and Toby's wrath. "And, for a while then, I didn't even think they were!"

"Didn't think they were what?" Sam asked, walking towards the elevator.

"Democrats. I didn't think they were Democrats from Montana."

"What did you think they were? Aliens?" Toby questioned.

"Well, illegal aliens."

"Mexican border hoppers?"

"Or Canadian? It is closer to Montana, you know," Sam shot in.

"No. I mean, illegal --- I mean, I thought we had been --- kidnapped, or something, taken hostage, in a consulate of some minute country posing as the Montana Democratic Caucus. I thought we were meeting with assassins, puppets of the country's corrupt government, sent out to hold White House Senior Staffers for ransom and find code-word clearance secrets."

Toby and Sam exchanged looks, then turned without a word into the elevator as the doors opened.

"What? Like that's such a crazy theory?"

The speechwriters remained silent.

"We were in the basement! There were no windows! I didn't know I even had cell phone reception until Donna text messaged me!"

"Sometimes I wonder about you," Toby mumbled, as the elevator doors opened once again at the ground level --- they had only been two floors below.

"I'm going to go get us a cab," Sam said, viewing the snow falling heavily from the sky, as Toby and Josh walked towards the doors with Sam and waited inside as he went out.

"You know, it wasn't so crazy," Josh said. "We'd never met these people before and we came to _them_. I don't think the Secret Service would have approved, had we asked them."

"Uh-huh," Toby said, walking over to the other side of the lobby away from Josh.

"I was thinking like a government operative, Toby!"

Toby continued to walk away and Josh pulled out his phone, calling Donna at the office.

"Josh Lyman's office, Donna speaking."

"Hi."

"You survived. Or, have you managed to get away and are calling me to come rescue you?"

"Very funny," Josh replied. Yep. Even Donna was giving him a hard time.

"You know," Donna started, "I have a plan for us once you get back here and we can leave."

"What's that?"

"We're going to go for a walk in the snow, and then we're going to go home and have hot chocolate."

"On one condition."

Donna sighed. "And what's that?"

"We have whipped cream."

"Okay."

He smiled mischievously.

"But not in the hot chocolate."


	15. The Whole Wisconsin Trip: Part I

Hi. Sorry it's taken me so long to write something for this. I've been much more focused (if you can actually call it that – I've been slacking a lot) writing for "Valete," but I've taken some time off from "pluming the darkness" to write this fluff. I actually wrote this pretty strangely, because I wrote part of the middle section of it before this, well, beginning, and so I've got material and will run with it all. I actually had some trouble with this, but oh well. We're actually working towards an actual _event_! Hooray!

As always, (actually, I've never said this before, I don't think) thank you for reading. :)

* * *

"Donna and I are going to Wisconsin on Wednesday." 

Sam looked up from his computer and laughed to himself, glancing at Josh's disheveled appearance. "Wisconsin, huh? Finally meeting Mr. and Mrs. Moss, parents of Donnatella?"

"And her two sisters, and her brother, and whoever else is coming for this hell hole of a holiday called Thanksgiving."

"Nice alliteration."

"Thanks." Josh walked in and took a seat in front of Sam's desk. It was rather funny to see Josh so stressed, his suit so rumpled, his hair showing the definite appearance of having his hands run through it many, many times in the past few days. Stifling the urge to laugh, Sam knew what this present occasion was: it was time, once again, to become Josh Lyman's Battles on the Hill, Fights with Co-Workers, Relationships, Etc. Therapist. "What's the problem?" Sam asked, beginning the session, as Josh with his eyes glazed over stared intently at the carpet.

"I'm scared to meet the family," Josh replied, still staring at floor.

"Well, naturally you should be. It's the first time you're going to be meeting them."

"Yeah. And there's, like, I don't know, there are a lot of Mosses, Sam. There's Donna and then her parents and then her brother and her sister and her other sister, and her cousins and their families and --- there are going to be a lot of people wanting to meet me --- and glare at me."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are they going to glare at you?"

"Thanksgiving is big in Donna's family."

"And so?"

"Where has Donna been the past few Thanksgivings?"

"Ah," Sam said, seeing the light. "In Washington. With you."

"Yeah, and it's not as if we were living together back then."

Sam's head jerked forward. "Wait, you and Donna are living together --- officially?"

"Yeah. We didn't tell you."

"No, you didn't tell me!"

"I know. I didn't say that as a question, I said it as a statement. We didn't tell you."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. We'd been sleeping at one another's places for days at a time. This is Donna's last month in her apartment."

"And then you and she are living in your apartment --- together?"

"Yeah."

"Josh, that's great," Sam said with a smile. "Is telling her parents that what is making you nervous, aside from the fact that you abducted Donna for a few Thanksgivings?"

"No."

Sam's face fell. He thought he had already solved Josh's problem. "No?"

"I'm asking Donna's dad for permission to marry her."

"WHAT?"

"It's not crazy or anything," Josh said, beginning to come back to his normal personality, albeit going straight from melancholy and paranoid to defensive. "You know how we've had a thing for a while and now we're officially together and… I don't know. I just think it's the best time to do this."

"To ask her dad's permission."

"Yeah. I don't want to do it over the phone. And, I know I don't have to do it at all, but I want to, so, I figure that I better do it now, while I can."

"But when are you going to propose?"

"I don't know."

"You just want the permission in your back pocket."

"Yeah."

Sam sighed. "Well, man, I say go for it."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"You sure her parents aren't going to kill me first?"

"No. I think you're making these twisted caricatures of them."

"I don't know, but you'll find out when Donna and I get back, if I survive."

"You'll be fine," Sam said, putting the closing note on the crisis. The two sat there, thinking, until Sam interjected, asking, "Have you gotten her a ring yet?"

"No. Not for lack of trying though. I've been sneakily running around trying to find one. I just haven't gotten it yet. I want to make sure it's perfect."

"You're going to buy one, not go the whole family heirloom route?"

"I don't know. I haven't really though of that. I guess I'm just more or less waiting for her dad's okay before I go any further."

"Leo's letting you two go to Wisconsin?" Sam still couldn't get over the fact that with such little notice, Josh was able to leave.

"I know. I tried to convince him otherwise, but we aren't doing anything that's vital over the holiday."

"And so,"

"And so I fly off to the land of the Green Bay Packers, cheddar cheese, and cranberry bogs."

"Cranberry bogs?"

"Yes," Josh replied strongly in opposition to Sam's skepticism. "Wisconsin is only second --- or maybe it's the only one in front --- of Massachusetts in cranberry production."

"Wow. That's – good to know. Did you read a travel guide?"

"No. That was my version of the history of the yam in Latin for this year."

It took a moment for Sam to understand what Josh was saying, and then he laughed. "The President knows?"

"It's not so much that I don't want to meet Donna's parents, it's just that I'd like to have a little bit more preparation and be able to nail this asking for permission bit."

"So you appealed Leo's OK to the President."

"Yeah. Little desperate. No biggie."

Sam laughed again. "C'mon. We've got senior staff in a few minutes, let's get going." The two got up and began to file out of Sam's office. "When have you had time for shopping for rings?"

Josh sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "You know all sporadic meetings with Triplehorn's Congressional aide?"

"Yeah."

"Ring shopping."

"But what if Donna ever called?"

"It's okay. Matt owed me a favor, so we've got it covered."

"Well, that's a relief."

"I'll say."

------

Josh slowly opened his eyes. It was early morning, and the sun was already up, radiating through the cracks of the shades and giving the still-sleeping Donna's hair a white-gold glow. Josh closed his eyes again and rolled over onto his back. It was then that it hit him. Today was Wednesday. Wisconsin Wednesday. The day his life, for all intents and purposes, was over, save only if Douglas and Carolena Moss didn't murder him. He groaned and rolled over to his other side to get out of the bed.

"What's wrong?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you!" Josh replied quickly, rolling into the bed again towards Donna.

"What time is it?"

"Little before six."

"Really? We need to get up then." Donna lifted her arms above her head, stretched, and then turned her head to see Josh. "Have you packed everything for my parents'?"

Josh turned away and ran off the bed towards the bathroom.

"Josh?" Donna asked again, this time her voice more stern.

"Um, yeah," was Josh's meager reply.

"_Josh_," Donna moaned. "How much do you still have left to pack?"

"Only a few things."

"Okay, let me rephrase that: how much _do _you have packed?"

"My lap top's in its bag and I have a suit picked out for today and some socks for tomorrow--"

"JOSH!"

"What!"

"Why didn't you pack your bag!"

"Because---" Donna had come into the doorway of the bathroom and was glaring at him. "Because I never pack my bag… you always do it." She still glared. "I don't know what to wear! I want to make sure your parents don't think I'm a complete, I don't know, slob, and I don't have experience with knowing what they do and do not like!"

"So you want me to pick out clothes for you."

"Preferably."

Donna rolled her eyes. "How do you know I'm not going to put some ridiculous clothes in your bag and make you look like a freak in front of my family?"

"Because you want me to impress them and not embarrass you. And, you love me."

"Yeah," she sighed and turned towards the bedroom again, "whatever."

"Thank you?" Josh skeptically called out behind her.

"You're welcome."

------

One turkey pardoned and several hours later, Josh and Donna checked their bags, went through security, and sat at the gate waiting to board their plane.

"What were you doing in Sam's office all day?" Donna asked.

"Huh?"

"You were over in Sam's office a lot. What were you guys doing?"

"Oh. I was helping Sam with some work involving, uh, Senator Triplehorn."

"Is that why you've been working so much with Matt Markum?"

Josh hated straight out lying, but desperate times called for desperate measures. "Yeah."

"I like Matt. He's a nice guy. Asked me out a few times."

Josh violently exhaled, beginning to cough. "He did _what?_"

"Kidding, Josh. Kidding."

"You better have been."

Just then, Josh's cell phone rang. "Who is it?"

"C.J.," Josh replied, tapping the screen, and, in an obviously strained happy tone, greeted the Press Secretary with "Hello, Claudia."

"JOSH LYMAN!"

Something was wrong. C.J. wasn't supposed to be yelling. He hadn't done anything.

"Is C.J. yelling at you?" Donna questioned, thinking she had heard Josh's name said pretty loudly --- and angrily.

"Uh, wait a minute, Donna, I'll be right back," Josh said, getting up and walking away from Donna. "C.J.?"

"YOU'RE PROPOSING TO DONNA!"

"No," Josh replied, mentally noting to hit Sam over the head for mentioning this to C.J. before anything actually happened, "I'm just asking her father for permission to marry her."

"SO… so you _don't _have a ring."

"No."

"Okay. Well then," C.J. said, her tone completely changing, "there is no longer a problem at hand."

This had all gone over his head. "What?"

"Sam told me that you and Donna were flying out to Wisconsin to spend time with her family _and _to simultaneously become engaged."

"No, I never said that. All I said was that I was asking Mr. Moss for his blessing for his daughter's hand in marriage."

"Aw, Josh. That was so nicely phrased."

"Thanks."

"So you don't have a ring?" C.J. was hung up on the diamond factor.

"No, I don't." Josh shifted his feet where he was standing in the middle of the airport. "Why's this so important?"

"Because. Well, I mean, I need to know when you're going to propose exactly."

"I can tell you when I'm thinking of doing it."

"Okay, good. But --- but I want to make sure the ring you have is appropriate."

"Appropriate?"

"Yes."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means she wants to approve the ring and help you shop for it!"

"Toby?" Josh didn't know that there was someone else with C.J.

"Give me the phone," Josh heard Toby say in the background and heard the phone passed from hand to hand. "Hey, Josh."

"Toby, shouldn't you be at your brother's right now?"

"Yeah. Let's not talk about that."

"Okay."

"You're asking Donna's dad to let her marry you?"

"Yeah."

"That's pretty stupid."

Was it just another Toby moment? "I'm sorry?" Josh questioned.

"You should be. You didn't ask me for help with this."

"I asked Sam."

"Yes, but Sam's not as knowledgeable about this as I am."

"He was engaged to Lisa."

"And you saw how well that worked out."

"They broke up, but what does that matter?"

"I became engaged and got married," Toby stated in an obvious tone.

"And then divorced," Josh countered.

"Yeah, but at least I made it down the aisle."

"Are you and C.J. both just jealous I didn't ask you for advice in this whole situation?"

Toby paused. "Maybe."

"Oh, come on. I didn't ask you because I assumed you'd be negative about all this, and C.J. because she'd be too excited and spill it all to Donna."

"Josh claims the reason he didn't tell us is because I'm negative and you'd tell Donna," Toby said to C.J.

"I wouldn't tell Donna!" C.J. whined. She grabbed the phone again. "Josh, just promise me that you'll let me help with ring selection."

"Fine. What does Toby want?"

"Toby," C.J. said, "what do you want to tell Josh?"

Josh could hear him sigh before he began to speak. "You don't deserve to know these helpful hints, but you should come bearing gifts."

"Bearing gifts?"

"Yes. It makes it seem like you care."

"I do care."

"Then bear gifts."

"You did this for Andy?"

"Yes. And it worked well. The Wyatts liked me. Still do, actually."

"And for whom did you buy gifts? Just her parents?"

"No. The whole family."

"The whole family!" Josh screeched. "Toby, Donna's family is, like, huge!"

"Then figure out what you're going to do."

"I'm in an airport."

"They have gift shops."

"You're serious about this?"

"Yes. Go buy something."

"Fine."

"Good luck," Toby said, before handing the phone to C.J. who added a serious "Call us every few hours with details!"

Josh hit the end button and put his phone back in his pocket. He had some serious shopping to do.


	16. The Whole Wisconsin Trip: Part II

Don't fall out of your chair or anything, but I don't have a little editorial to post here. I know, it's shocking. All I have to say is: excuse the mistakes, because I'm a lazy bum who doesn't proofread, and, as always, thank you for reading.

* * *

"Finally you turned on your cell!"

Josh rolled his eyes. "C.J., you do realize I did have to, you know, actually get _on _the plane and fly to Wisconsin."

"Yeah – but – didn't just now take extra long?"

"No."

C.J. sighed. It wasn't her fault she was excited about Josh meeting Donna's parents. "Okay, fine," she resigned. "How did the shopping go?"

"It was interesting," Josh replied.

"Did you find good stuff?"

"Airport, C.J. Shopping in an airport." Josh knew that women may be shopping-crazed, needing serious medication and everything, but honestly. An airport. And not a fancy one – but are there actually fancy ones?

"Right," conceded C.J. "Was Donna suspicious?"

"What do you think?"

"Right. What are you doing now?"

"Well, we just deplaned, Donna's in the bathroom, and we're going to go get our bags soon."

"You're only there for the weekend, why do you need bags?"

"What does it matter?"

"Just wondering."

"Yeah," said Josh.

"But, why?" C.J. nagged against his protest.

"Well, have you ever seen how much stuff Donna carries? And, the fact that I needed my lap top and that they have a requirement for how much stuff you can bring on the plane. That's why."

"You also had to bring a lot of different outfits, too."

"C.J.!" Josh squealed.

"You should have asked me for fashion advice."

"Donna told you? When?"

"Earlier today. Anyway," C.J. said, switching her tone of voice and the subject simultaneously, "how are you getting to her parents'?"

Josh wished C.J. could see his glare right now. "We're renting a car," he replied, teeth somewhat clenched.

"The Mosses aren't picking you up?" C.J. said, her visage falling as she learned Josh had escaped a treacherous mine of awkwardness.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no. They offered, but we kindly refused."

"I see. Don't want to trouble them?"

"Something like that."

"Chicken."

"Have people ever told you that they hate you?"

"Yes, but that's why Evangelicals pray for me."

They paused.

"Are you calling me just to bask in my suffering?"

No need to lie. "Yes," replied C.J.

"Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Fairly well, I must say."

"Well, nothing's happened yet, but when it does, how about I'll make sure to call you and let you know."

"Oh, Josh," C.J. cooed. "That's so kind of you."

"What can I say."

"You just want me to get off the phone right now."

"Yeah."

"Okay, fine. Good luck."

"Thanks." Josh hung up and waited for Donna to leave the bathroom. The pressure was mounting, and Josh started bouncing back and forth on the balls of his feet, hoping it would relieve some of the tension. He was absolutely, most certainly afraid of meeting Donna's family. He loved her, and the fear of failure frightened him more than nearly anything ever had. It was funny that this fright almost felt worse than other horrible times in his life. But, regardless, he was scared. His paranoid thoughts were interrupted when Donna walked out of the restroom.

"Ready?" she asked.

He hesitated, then decided to say, "No. Are you sure you still aren't finished – I don't know – getting all un-plane-y? You could stay in there longer and probably wash your hair in a sink and blow-dry it with those hand drying machines."

"Funny," she replied, giving him a look. "Come on, relax, you'll be fine."

"I'm scared."

"Aw."

"I am!"

"Baggage terminal. Let's go."

"Donna!"

She was laying down the law. "Oh, for crying out loud, Josh. Let's go! Enough whining."

"Fine," Josh huffed in response and slowly began to follow her, when she stopped and extended her hand for him to take.

"Sorry for being mean," she said, squeezing his hand, "but you're being ridiculous. My parents aren't going to murder you or anything. You gave me a job."

"Yeah, and whisked you away from Wisconsin, barely to be heard from."

"How do you know how often I call my parents?"

"I just know these things."

"Oh, Josh," Donna sighed. "No one's going to hate you. They'll see the good side of your personality – hopefully – and will approve of our dating."

"But, Donna, your family is full of – full of _Republicans_!"

Donna yanked Josh and began to walk towards the baggage carousel. "Only some of them are, and I'll tell you which ones to avoid."

Josh pulled up alongside Donna after slightly walking behind her, dropped her hand, and stopped walking. "What's the ratio?" he asked, rubbing his forehead.

"Oh, I don't know—"

"Donna," Josh replied, his voice stern.

"Oh, three to one, I suppose…"

"DONNA!"

"You'll be fine," she replied as Josh looked around, trying to find the nearest terminal whose next flight was for D.C. – or San Diego – or anywhere _other _than Wisconsin. "And," she said, once again grabbing his hand as if he were a disobedient child who kept running away, "our plane tickets won't get you home today, so let's go."

Josh grumbled something inaudible and once again trailed Donna as they went off to baggage claim D1 – wherever that was.

---------

"Wow, Josh, a mid-size sedan," Donna said sarcastically as the kid – who had to be no older than seventeen and was working at an airport car rental kiosk, of all places – awarded Josh with a key and a number, telling him the cars were easy to find in the garage.

"What's wrong with a mid-size?"

"You couldn't get a full?"

"No, I figured you wouldn't care. Actually, I figured you'd be happier with the smaller size because it meant I'd spent less money."

"Oh."

Josh looked at Donna questioningly. She seemed sort of – upset? What had he…

"Oh, my God," Josh whisper-yelled.

"What?"

He pulled Donna off to the side of the airport right before they walked out into the garage. "Will your dad see it as a sign of weakness or financial insecurity that I only rented a mid-size?"

"Well—"

"Donna! You're supposed to tell me these things!"

Josh's eyes were wider than ever. Donna left him hanging with his look of shock for a minute and then broke out into laughter.

"Oh, I see how it is," Josh said, reacting to the laughter. "This was all part of an elaborate setup."

"Elaborate?" Donna choked out between giggles.

"Fine, maybe not elaborate, but certainly a setup."

"Yes."

"You're very adorable, did you know that?" Josh lamented sarcastically, beginning to walk out into the garage.

"Yes."

"Absolutely adorable."

----------

"It's really – flat."

"Yes, Josh, welcome to the Midwest."

"But this is really, _really _flat."

Donna rolled her eyes. "You've been to Midwestern states before, what's the problem?"

"It's just so… flat."

"Well, you'll be surprised to know that we actually do have civilization out here – modern civilization, too."

Josh glared at her. "I know that. I just – it's always a shock when you go from a tree-populated area to a corn field-populated area."

"I see."

He groaned and shifted around in the passenger's seat awkwardly. Donna tried her best to control her laughter when the image of Josh, his classic sunglasses on, elbow up on the door near the window, hand raking through his hair, and his right leg up on the dashboard when he groaned "Are we there yet?"

"Not yet. But if you're good, I'll give you a treat later."

Josh's eyebrows peeked out from behind the sunglasses. "Donna! No! No sex while at your parent's house!"

"Oh please," she replied, turning to look at him, "I meant like a cookie or something. You're acting like you're five. Please mature back to the intelligent forty-something you are or else you'll be stuck sitting with my nieces and nephews tomorrow."

"Yeah, fine, whatever."

They traveled on for twenty more minutes in remote, comfortable silence, while Josh tried to fiddle with the radio to get some music going. In their thirtieth minute of driving, he began to lose it again.

"Could these roads be any more _boring_? I swear to God, put the car on cruise control and tie the steering wheel up with a bungee cord so it doesn't move and you've got your own chauffeur."

"Josh, I swear," snapped Donna. "Be kind to my family who don't freak out driving down the highway in their home state or there _will _be repercussions when we get home. Besides, we've got, like, fifteen more minutes. So, chill out."

Josh shifted around in his seat a bit more and sighed loudly, signaling he understood the request, and the rest of the ride went on without a hitch. They turned off at the exit, drove past a grocery store and a playground (where Donna fell off a swing at age five, he learned) and, then, came to East 32nd Street.

"Only one more street to go and we're there!" Donna cheerfully shouted.

"What's the name of it again?"

"Boston Road."

"Boston Road?"

"I didn't name it."

"They just named a street after the state capitol of Massachusetts?"

Donna rolled her eyes for what must have been the, oh, millionth time that day. "Apparently they did. But, if it makes you feel any better, the next street over is Philadelphia, and then Constitution, and…"

"Hey! It's like a birth of the nation theme!"

"Yes."

"Cool!"

"Whatever makes you happy, Joshua."

They took the turn on Boston Road, and, five houses down on the left, came to the Moss Residence.

Where the lawn was covered with signs stuck into the ground.

Supporting Republican candidates.

Josh examined further and noticed what appeared to be a poorly drawn chalk elephant in the small driveway.

"Ha," Donna chuckled nervously. "I guess my family's having some fun with you."

Yep. Josh's Thanksgiving was going to be a blast.


	17. The Whole Wisconsin Trip: Part III

Josh had grabbed the bags as quickly as humanly possible, walked up the stairs at a brisk pace – but not so brisk they'd suspect something – and closed the door gingerly. And, holy mother of God, how nice it was to have a whole slab of wood and a level of elevation between him and the Masses of Mosses.

He couldn't believe he was doing this. As soon as he locked the door (thank God it had one), Josh found himself digging into his pocket, pulling out his phone, and calling… C.J.'s cell.

"Calling so soon?" she answered happily.

"Yeah," Josh snapped.

"Things not going so well?"

"They're animals, C.J.! Animals!"

C.J. couldn't help but laugh. This was too good to be true. It was a time where she _wished _that cell phone calls made within the White House were monitored by the FBI. What a pretty penny she'd pay to get this to listen to over and over again. "Josh, don't be silly. I've met Donna's parents before and they're perfectly civil."

"I'm not talking about her parents – though, they aren't as easy as you're making them out to be."

"Then whom are you speaking of?"

"The – spawn of Satan! There's, I don't know how many of them, all running around, hyper, crying, yelling, hitting!"

"You mean Donna's nieces and nephews?" C.J. replied, although she already knew the answer.

Josh traveled up into the upper octave of his voice screaming, "YES!"

"Oh, Josh. Surely you can handle a few kids." A Cheshire cat-like smile was dancing upon C.J.'s face.

"Not these ones! They've been bread to destroy!"

"I'm sure."

"They have been! C.J., I'm telling you, they've been bread to destroy and kill!"

She choked trying to keep from giggling. _Where _were Toby and Sam! There was no way they should miss this while waiting before they started having a pre-Thanksgiving poker night. Maybe they could even get Leo…

"Josh, hang on a minute," C.J. said, putting the phone down, and running over towards the Communications bullpen. The only two lights on were coming from Toby and Sam's respective offices, and she peeked her head in to both of their offices and screamed at them to follow her. Neither could understand her hysterically amused command.

Toby didn't get up, but instead shouted an irritated "What?" back at C.J., while Sam, on the other hand, got up, grabbed C.J.'s arm, and asked her to explain, which she did, happily.

"Josh – is on – my cell phone – from Wisconsin, and he's – he's freaking out!" she managed to get out, starting to break into laughter, doubling over, and walking away to brace herself against a the side of one of the bullpen's cubicles. Sam glared at her with questioning eyes. By this time, Toby had finally meandered out of his office.

"What's going on?"

"Something about Josh," Sam answered.

"Josh?"

"He went to visit Donna's family today for Thanksgiving."

"Oh," Toby mumbled. "Why is she laughing?" he asked, making it as if C.J. weren't even in the same space as they were.

"Apparently Josh is on the phone and it's very funny."

Toby rolled his eyes. "C.J. – C.J. – hey, focus for a minute, what's happening?"

She turned around, sharply inhaled, and gave a small chuckle before saying, "Josh is at Donna's parents, and he's being terrorized. He's on my cell phone – it's too funny to miss. You guys have gotta come and listen." She walked away, the two men still glued to their spaces. "Come on!" she shouted. "You will be really sad you missed this."

Sam looked over at Toby and shrugged, following C.J. Hesitantly, Toby followed behind them, rolling his eyes again and mumbling, "This better be good," to anyone who was bothering to listen.

C.J. nearly skipped back into her office, turned her cell phone to speakerphone, and said,

"Okay, Josh. I'm back."

"Took you long enough! Any minute now they'll get their little toy swords and saws and hatchets and start beating through the door!"

At that point, Sam had reached the threshold and C.J. waved him inside, Toby, once again, slowly following.

"Josh, the toys are plastic," C.J. replied.

"It doesn't matter! They'll find a way! Maybe they'll just break into Mr. Moss's tool shed in the garage and whip out the power saw and an extension cord!"

Sam raised his eyebrows and took a seat, smiling. Oh, yeah, this was going to be quite a good time.

"Well, what happened? Last I heard from you, you were waiting for Donna to leave the bathroom and now you're… locked up somewhere hiding."

"Everything was fine at first, Donna and I found our rental car, and started driving to her parents' house."

"And then?"

"And then, as we drove up, they'd put out… some signs. A Welcome to the Moss Family Tribute for me."

"What does that mean?"

"Signs in the front yard supporting Republican candidates and an elephant drawn on the driveway in chalk by the Spawn."

Sam tried to stifle a laugh after hearing Josh's welcoming, but failed, letting out a loud noise.

"What was that?" Josh questioned.

"Nothing," replied C.J., giving Sam the evil eye. "Sorry. I just – choked. That's an – interesting way to greet you."

"Yeah. But, it gets better."

She smiled. "Do tell."

'_Having fun, Donna? HAVING FUN!' Josh screeched at Donna's belittling of the signs and chalk elephant._

'_They're just trying to intimidate you!'_

'_Yeah, well, it's working!'_

_Donna sighed. 'I swear, Josh, you're going to be fine. Let's go.'_

'_Donna!' he whined._

'_The sooner you get out and meet them, the sooner it's over.'_

'_I – I'm not ready yet. I'm not going in there! I'm taking the car and driving back to Washington!'_

_Donna slapped him aside the head. 'Oh, get a hold of yourself, will you? You're meeting my family, not the Queen of England!'_

'_At this point I'd be happier meeting her—'_

'_JOSH!'_

'_I'm sorry,' he meekly responded. 'I'm just being honest! Isn't honesty the best policy?'_

'_They're watching you,' Donna said cryptically, completely ignoring Josh's last remark and alternating her glance between him and the house._

'_What?'_

'_My family. They're watching you – they're watching us. The longer we take getting out of the car, the more suspicious they'll become.'_

_Josh started to turn around and look, then stopped, staring at Donna. 'Fine. You win.'_

'_Good. Now let's get these damn introductions over with,' Donna said, opening the door to the car, and Josh following suit. _

'_Should I get the bags?'_

'_No, we'll get them after intros.'_

'_Correction,' Josh interrupted, 'I'll get the bags.'_

_Donna stared at him. 'I'm sorry, did you just say that _you _were going to get our luggage?'_

'_Yes.'_

'_This is like bringing coffee when one is afraid one's boss is about to be fired.'_

'_Funny.'_

_They walked up towards the front door, Donna reaching for Josh's hand and he pulling it away and instead resting his own hand on the small of her back. _

'_More gentlemanly,' he murmured as they ascended up the stairs and Donna hit the doorbell. The two waited for the door to be opened – all part of the intimidation, Josh assumed. There was no way they were far away from the door._

_Finally, the woman who, obviously, was Donna's mother opened the door and embraced her daughter, shouting a loud 'Hi!'_

_Donna hugged her mother and stepped back, turning to Josh, ready to introduce him. _

'_Mom, this is, at long last, Josh, and Josh, this is my mother, Carolena Moss.'_

'_It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Moss,' Josh replied, extending his hand._

_Instead, the older, shorter version of Donna took her daughter's boyfriend into a small hug. 'It's nice to finally meet you in the flesh, rather than seeing you on CNN,' she laughed._

'_Yeah, I'm really sorry about not being able to come out here to meet you and Mr. Moss sooner, but things are—'_

'_Busy in the White House and the lifestyle surrounding it.'_

'_Yeah,' Josh replied with a nervous laugh._

'_It's fine, we didn't take offense to it.' Josh was still standing with the door half open. 'Come on in,' she beckoned, 'you're letting out the heat and therefore wasting our precious oil which will make Doug get the shotgun off the mantle.'_

"Whoa!" C.J. exclaimed. "Donna's dad has a shotgun?"

'_Mom,' Donna whined. 'Don't be mean to Josh. He's already afraid we have a wooden stake in the ground and all the nieces and nephews rounding firewood.'_

'_Don't be silly, we got all of it yesterday,' she replied, leading them into the house. 'And no, Josh, Doug doesn't have a shotgun. We're actually members of the NRA.'_

'_Oh. That's great,' Josh mumbled._

'_And, don't worry about shielding your political beliefs. We're pretty open-minded when it comes to all that stuff.'_

'_Well—'_

'_Well, except my brother-in-law Arthur. He's very conservative.'_

'_And—'_

'_And Donna's Aunt Mia. She's also on the farther right side of the spectrum.'_

'_But—'_

'_But Doug's sister Cathy and her whole family is pretty conservative as well. But other than that Josh, you're fine.'_

'_Or—'_

'_Or, I guess you're better staying away from Donna's cousin Erin, Uncle Nathan, Aunt Giovanna, and Donna's cousin once removed, T.J.'_

'_Yeah, they like to give me a hard time about the President's policies.'_

'_But they're really not bad, they all voted for your Bartlet.'_

'_Well, not T.J.'_

'_No, not T.J. – he's only eleven.'_

'_He's pretty precocious.'_

'_Very precocious.'_

"What's so funny?" Josh asked, as C.J.'s laughter on the other line was becoming difficult to ignore.

"It's like your very own sitcom!"

"Yeah. I have a feeling Donna and her mom practiced that little repartee before."

'_Anyway, all the kids are really excited to see Aunt Donna,' Mrs. Moss said, putting her hand to the doorknob that lead from the foyer to the rest of the house. 'You ready, Josh?'_

_Her words rocketed him back into reality, as he had been daydreaming about being cornered with people attacking how though unemployment had decreased, many of the Bartlet campaign promises had yet to be made good upon. 'Uh, yeah. I guess so.'_

'_Don't worry,' Donna said, grabbing his hand and giving it a quick squeeze. 'We just like to tease incoming – suitors about the horrors of our family. You should have seen what we did to Ted, Kathleen's husband. It was actually sort of funny—'_

_Donna continued speaking, but Josh shut her out as the door to the rest of the house opened in what seemed to be slow motion. She was saying something, but all Josh noticed was the way that her mother casually sauntered into the room and the great number of adults and children who slowly turned to face the door and to catch sight of the matriarch, young daughter, and fresh meat who had walked into the room. _

'_Aunt Donna!' a girl with short blonde curls shouted and ran over to give Donna a hug, dropping the Play-Doh she had been playing with on the floor with a sizeable thud._

'_Hey, Caroline!'' Donna replied, picking up the little girl and balancing the child on her hip. 'Look how big you've gotten since I saw you last!'_

'_You missed my birthday,' the girl said, squeezing her face up into a frown._

'_I know! I'm sorry I did! But, did you get my present?'_

'_Yes. Thank you.'_

_Donna laughed. 'You're welcome. I can't believe you're three!'_

_As Caroline stuck out her index, middle, and ring fingers to signal her age, one of the adults, who looked a lot like Donna, and for that matter, a lot like Caroline, walked over to where the two were standing._

'_Let's let Aunt Donna get settled, Care, okay?' the woman said, removing the girl from Donna's arms. _

'_Thanks, Kristen,' Donna replied. 'She looks so big! I can't believe I've missed seeing her grow up.'_

'_Yeah, but you've been getting my e-mails with the pictures, right?'_

'_Yeah,' laughed Donna. 'They clog up my inbox and usually get Josh pretty annoyed.'_

'_Right!' exclaimed Kristen, stepping over to Josh. Aside from the pairs of eyes glued to him, no one had made note of Josh's presence verbally. 'Hi Josh,' she said, extending her hand to him, 'I'm Kristen, one of Donna's sisters.'_

'_Nice to meet you,' Josh replied, nervously taking the woman's hand. As first Moss-Lyman contact had made, the rest of the family seemed to finally be willing to approach him – albeit cautiously. It appeared that since Kristen hadn't been bitten or mauled by this new guy that maybe it was okay to talk to him._

'_Hi, Aunt Donna,' one of her nephews said quietly._

'_Hi, Mason!' she replied, bending down to give him a hug._

_Then, they all came fast and furious at Josh with their name and an accompanying handshake._

'_Josh, it's good to meet you. I'm Kristin's husband, Cam.'_

'_Hi.'_

'_Great to finally meet you, Josh. I'm Kathleen, Donna's oldest sister.'_

'_Hey, Kathleen.'_

'_Josh. Brian, Donna's big brother.'_

'_Good to see you.'_

_After his handshake with Brian, Josh saw two kids walking up to potential uncle or father depending on whose kids they were. _

'_Daddy,' the girl who had walked up to Brian asked, 'who is that man with Aunt Donna?'_

'_Yeah,' the boy next to her replied. 'He looks scared.'_

'_Uh, Laura,' Brian said, calling over to, Josh realized from the name, the woman who was his wife, 'Jackie and Dustin want to know who it is with Donna.'_

'_Oh, it's – well, he's—'_

'_The man with Donna is—' Kristen began, then finding herself at a loss for a title for Josh. He wasn't _Uncle _Josh, but they wouldn't understand Josh, Aunt Donna's boyfriend…_

'_That's – her man,' Kathleen concluded, receiving weird looks from the rest of the adults in the room, to which she just shrugged her shoulders._

'_Daddy, is it okay to talk to him?' asked Jackie, pointing towards Josh._

_Brian laughed. 'Of course.'_

_Jackie walked over towards Josh, stopped, looked at him, turned around, and motioned for Dustin to come with her. 'Hi,' she finally said._

'_Hi,' Josh replied._

'_Jackie,' Laura shouted across the room, 'how to we address people when meeting them for the first time?'_

'_Right,' the girl replied, standing up straighter and extending her – left hand, said, 'Hi, Her Man, my name is Jackie, and this is my cousin Dustin.'_

_Josh looked at Donna who was holding back a laugh. 'Hi, Jackie,' Josh replied, shaking her left hand._

'_Are you the reason Aunt Kristen told me to draw an elephant in the driveway?'_

'_Uh, yeah.'_

'_I'm going to be an artist.'_

'_That's pretty neat. I could tell, because your elephant was really good.'_

'_Thank you, Her Man,' answered Jackie, to which Josh heard some more stifled laughter from the adult contingent in the room. 'At school we have art classes and I like them a lot.'_

'_Oh,' Josh replied happily. 'That's really good.'_

'_Yes. And my daddy said that I was supposed to tell Donna's friend that was coming to meet us today that alowycatering funds for school art programs is the only good thing President Barterlet has done.'_

'_Ah,' Josh replied, casting yet again another glance at Donna. 'Well, at least we've done one good thing.'_

'_That's who Aunt Donna works for,' Jackie continued. 'She works for President Barterlet at the White House in Washington.'_

'_Yeah, so do I.'_

'_You work at the White House?'_

'_Uh-huh.'_

'_So you and Aunt Donna work together?'_

'_Yeah, we do.'_

'_That's nice. My daddy says that Aunt Donna's boss – not President Barterlet – can be a big pain sometimes, not letting her come home a lot.'_

'_Ah, well, we'll have to make him stop doing that.'_

'_Yep. She hasn't even seen my baby doll that I got for Christmas last year!'_

'_Or my Buzz Lightyear doll,' Dustin chimed in._

'_Well, you'll have to show them to her.'_

'_And you'll have to see them too, Her Man,' commanded Jackie._

'_Sure,' Josh said. Oh, crap, was he in over his head._

'_Well, Jackie, let's first let Donna and Her Man get their bags and put them upstairs before we show them toys,' Kathleen aided._

'_Okay,' Jackie replied and walked off without protest. _

"They don't know your name is Josh?"

"No."

"It's Donna and – Her Man?"

"Yes. Sounds like Herman, but really isn't."

"God," C.J. sighed. "These kids are good."

"Not really the kids, more or less Kathleen."

"Okay, I can see why that would be frustrating, but I haven't heard the horrible part of it yet."

"Oh, that's because it comes after I went back out to the car."


End file.
